From 'Japan Problem' to 'China Threat'?: Rising Powers in US Economic Discourse [1st ed.] 9783030449506, 9783030449513

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GLOBAL POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY

From ’Japan Problem’ to ’China Threat’? Rising Powers in US Economic Discourse Nicola Nymalm

Global Political Sociology Series Editors Dirk Nabers International Political Sociology Kiel University Kiel, Germany Marta Fernández Institute of International Relations Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Chengxin Pan School of Humanities and Social Sciences Deakin University Waurn Ponds, Australia David B. MacDonald Department of Political Science University of Guelph Guelph, ON, Canada

This new series is designed in response to the pressing need to better understand growing complex global, transnational, and local issues that stubbornly refuse to be pigeon-­ holed into clearly-defined established disciplinary boxes. The new series distinguishes its visions in three ways: (1) It is inspired by genuine sociological, anthropological and philosophical perspectives in International Relations (IR), (2) it rests on an understanding of the social as politically constituted, and the social and the political are always ontologically inseparable, and (3) it conceptualizes the social as fundamentally global, in that it is spatially dispersed and temporarily contingent. In the books published in the series, the heterogeneity of the world’s peoples and societies is acknowledged as axiomatic for an understanding of world politics. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15803

Nicola Nymalm

From ‘Japan Problem’ to ‘China Threat’? Rising Powers in US Economic Discourse

Nicola Nymalm Swedish Defence University Stockholm, Sweden

Global Political Sociology ISBN 978-3-030-44950-6    ISBN 978-3-030-44951-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44951-3 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the ­publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and ­institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © Dennis Cox / Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Acknowledgements

This book was mainly written during my time as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI) in Stockholm. I wish to thank my former colleagues there for their feedback and support. My gratitude extends equally to my new colleagues at the Swedish Defence University (FHS) for providing me with time and space for the final review of the manuscript during the first month of my new position there. Most of the empirical research and analysis for the book was conducted in the context of my PhD research at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) and at Kiel University and during visiting fellowships at American University and the University of Virginia. I gratefully acknowledge all of the feedback, critique and support I received from peers, colleagues and supervisors during that time. I wish to acknowledge the financial support I received from GIGA for the proofreading of the manuscript. The original dissertation project received funding from the Finnish Cultural Foundation in Helsinki. I thank the Global Political Sociology editors for their invitation to publish in this series and Anca Pusca and Rachel Moore at Palgrave for their patience and flexibility, as well as for their professional support throughout the book project.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Writing tends to be a lonely process characterized by periods of ‘social isolation’ and it would not have been possible to write the book without the encouragement and unconditional support of family and friends. I wish to express my deepest and most heartfelt gratitude to you all. Stockholm 2020

Nicola Nymalm

Contents

Part I 1 1 Introduction  3 1.1 Aims and Contributions of the Book  8 1.2 The Cases: Discourses on ‘Rising Japan’ and ‘Rising China’, and US Trade Policy 16 1.3 Sources and Time Frame 22 1.4 Overview of the Chapters 25 2 State of the Art and Key Concepts 27 2.1 US-Chinese and US-Japanese Economic Relations 27 2.2 Ideas and Discourses in IR and IPE 34 2.3 American Exceptionalism, the Liberal Theory of History and US-Japan and US-China Policies 37 2.4 ‘Liberal’ Identity, the ‘Other’ and US-Japan and US-China Policies 41 3 Political Discourse Theory and Rhetorical Analysis: Fundamental Premises and Key Terms 45 3.1 Discourse as Ontological Horizon and Empirical Object of Research 48 3.2 Identity as Discourse: Neither Stable Nor ‘Anything Goes’ 56 3.3 Dislocation, Antagonism and Heterogeneity: The Instability of Hegemony 62 3.4 From ‘Ideas’ to Discourses: Rhetorical Political Analysis 67 vii

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Part II79 4 The US Congressional Discourse on Japan and China: Issues and Topics 81 4.1 The US Congress and Japan: Issues and Topics 81 4.2 The US Congress and China: Issues and Topics 86 5 Nomination and Predication: Initial Articulations of Self and Other 91 5.1 The ‘Arrogant Japanese’ and ‘Communist China’ Versus a ‘Strong Ally’ and a ‘Big Economic Power’ 92 5.2 ‘Our Nation’ and ‘the American People’ Versus ‘Uncle Sam’ and ‘Uncle Sucker’ 94 6 Argumentation on the Main Topics: The Trade Deficit and the Challenge to US World Leadership 97 6.1 The Trade Deficit with Japan: ‘The Most Competitive Economy’ Versus ‘the Most Protectionist Country on Earth’ 97 6.2 Japan as a Competitor, and ‘World (Economic) Power’?108 6.3 The Trade Deficit with China: ‘Free Trade’ Versus ‘Unfairness’112 6.4 China as a ‘World (Economic) Power’, and Challenger of the USA?119 7 Perspectivation on Japan and China: The USA as Victim of ‘Unfair’ and ‘Illiberal’ Policies127 7.1 Perspectivation on Japan: ‘The Cart Is Before the Horse’127 7.2 Perspectivation on China: ‘How to Deal with China’?142 8 Intensification and Mitigation: Economic Warfare Versus Engagement149 8.1 Intensification Towards Japan: ‘This Is Pearl Harbor Without Bombs’149 8.2 Mitigation Towards Japan: ‘Solve the America Problem’158 8.3 Intensification Towards China: ‘Evil Knows No Resting Place’168 8.4 Mitigation Towards China: ‘China Is Not the Enemy’175

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9 Conclusions187 Bibliography193 Index235

About the Author

Nicola  Nymalm, PhD  is an Assistant Professor in War Studies at the Swedish Defence University and an Associate Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI) and the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA). Her research interests include relations between ‘established’ and ‘emerging’ powers, critical approaches to international relations, international political economy, security/military studies and US-China relations. Her previous work has appeared in journals such as International Political Sociology, International Studies Review, Journal of International Relations and Development and Cambridge Review of International Affairs.

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List of Figures

Fig. 4.1

Fig. 4.2

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Fig. 4.4

US trade in goods with Japan in billions of US dollars. (Source: Trade data from the US Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/ balance/c5880.html (accessed 26 March 2015). All figures in US Dollars are on a nominal basis, not seasonally adjusted) US trade in goods with Japan as percentage of US GDP. (Sources: Trade data from the US Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/ foreign-trade/balance/c5880.html (accessed 26 March 2015). GDP data from the US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, http://www.bea.gov/national/index. htm#gdp (accessed 26 March 2015). All figures in US Dollars and GDP are on a nominal basis, not seasonally adjusted) US trade in goods with China in billions of US dollars. (Sources: Trade data from the US Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/ balance/c5880.html (accessed 26 March 2015). GDP data from the US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, http://www.bea.gov/national/index.htm#gdp (accessed 26 March 2015). All figures in US Dollars and GDP are on a nominal basis, not seasonally adjusted) US trade in goods with China as percentage of US GDP. (Sources: Trade data from the US Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/ foreign-trade/balance/c5880.html (accessed 26 March 2015). GDP data from the US Department of Commerce, Bureau of

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List of Figures

Fig. 4.5

Economic Analysis, http://www.bea.gov/national/index. htm#gdp (accessed 26 March 2015). All figures in US Dollars and GDP are on a nominal basis, not seasonally adjusted) US trade deficits in trade in goods with Japan and China in billions of US dollars. (Source: Trade data from the US Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, https://www. census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5880.html (accessed 26 March 2015). All figures in US Dollars are on a nominal basis, not seasonally adjusted)

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PART I

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

‘We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the US.  Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue!’ Thus tweeted US President Donald J. Trump on 4 April 2018 (Trump 2018). In January that year, Trump had slapped 30 per cent tariffs on foreign imports of solar panels, of which China was the biggest source, in what is now considered the ‘first strike’ in a US-Chinese ‘trade war’ (Aleem 2018) that continued throughout 2019. Trump has claimed many times to be the first US president to stand up to ‘unfair’ trading practices by China, and for US workers who have been losing their jobs to ‘unfair’ competition (Cox 2019). Part of this can certainly be attributed to the hyperbole common to Trump’s characterizations of his achievements as president and more generally, but he and his administration are not the only ones to talk about a new phase in US-Chinese relations, and not only when it comes to trade and economic policies. Several comments and publications across the political divides have proclaimed not only a tougher approach but even the ‘end of engagement’ (The Economist 2018a; Campbell and Sullivan 2019) and a beginning of confrontation and conflict: ‘We’re at the end of one moment and the beginning of another’ (Moyer 2019, quoting Orville Schell). This ‘new moment’ has even been called a ‘New Cold War’ (e.g. Landler and Perlez 2018). What seems to be largely forgotten, however, is that while a growing consensus is visible in Washington that changing © The Author(s) 2020 N. Nymalm, From ‘Japan Problem’ to ‘China Threat’?, Global Political Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44951-3_1

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the economic approach to China in particular is overdue, accusations against the USA’s most important trading partner and economic competitor of forced technology transfers, unfair trading practices resulting in US job losses, limited access for foreign firms and regulatory favouritism for locals (cf. Zakaria 2019) are nothing new, but date back to before China began its economic ascent. ‘I believe that if trade is not fair for all, then trade is free in name only. I will not stand by and let American businesses fail, because of unfair trading practices abroad. I will not stand by and let American workers lose their jobs, because other nations do not play by the rules’ (Reagan 1985). This statement by President Ronald Reagan in 1985 was made at the height of a growing trade deficit and tensions over economic policy with Japan, which was the biggest economic competitor and deficit trading partner of the USA at the time. It is not only the allegations and widespread rhetoric that the main economic competitor is not playing fair and is responsible for US economic problems, or that this competitor is a rapidly growing East Asian economy that present parallels with the discourse on China today. Japan was also depicted as having the potential to replace the USA as new ‘No. 1’ (Vogel 1979), and as inaugurating a new type of mercantilist international order. In other words, this was the last time that there was a debate about a ‘rising power’ challenging the USA not only on its economic position, but as a global hegemon. Surprisingly, the Japan case seems to have been largely forgotten when it comes to ‘great power competition’ (cf. Nymalm 2019b), both in Washington and in academic circles (notable exceptions aside). Nonetheless, as a relatively recent example, ‘the rise of Japan’ as the main (East Asian) economic competitor of the USA is important for learning about both the relationship between ‘established’ and ‘rising’ powers and the political and academic discourse on the ‘rise’ itself.1 This book examines the parallels in the US-Japanese and US-Chinese economic relationships by focusing on the role of identity in economic discourses. Identity has been largely neglected in research on US-Chinese economic relations. This also seems surprising, as an identity discourse— according to which China is expected to change and ‘converge’ (e.g. Moyer 2019, quoting Orville Schell and Jianying Zha) first economically and then politically, to become more like the USA—has been a widely debated constant of US economic policy that was also prominent in the case of Japan. The ‘disappointment’ about the outcome so far is now 1

 For a critical take on ‘rising powers’ see Zarakol (2019).

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clearly demonstrated in the Trump administration’s openly more confrontational approach. The 2017 US National Security Strategy (NSS), for example, labels China (along with Russia) a ‘revisionist power’ that wants ‘to shape a world antithetical to US values and interests’ (White House 2017, 25). It also takes stock of and signals a departure from previous US policies that ‘helped expand the liberal economic trading system to countries that did not share our values, in the hopes that these states would liberalize their economic and political practices and provide commensurate benefits to the United States’. Instead, the NSS continues, ‘these countries distorted and undermined key economic institutions without undertaking significant reform of their economies or politics’ (White House 2017, 17, emphasis added). While China is not directly named in this latter context in the NSS, US Vice-President Mike Pence was more outspoken in his speech at the Hudson Institute in October 2018, which was quickly interpreted as reflecting the Trump administration’s ‘reset’ that merges ‘hawkishness, economic nationalism and values based advocacy […]’ (Rogin 2018) when it comes to its relations with China: ‘After the fall of the Soviet Union, we assumed that a free China was inevitable. Heady with optimism at the turn of the 21st Century, America agreed to give Beijing open access to our economy, and we brought China into the World Trade Organization. Previous administrations made this choice in the hope that freedom in China would expand in all of its forms — not just economically, but politically, with a newfound respect for classical liberal principles, private property, personal liberty, religious freedom — the entire family of human rights. But that hope has gone unfulfilled.’ (The White House 2018, emphasis added) In April 2019 the acting US Defence Secretary, Patrick Shanahan, stated that China was an economic threat, and both he and President Trump have been quoted as seeing the modernization of China as ‘the biggest threat America faces’ (Dedaj 2019). Trump has even called China ‘a threat to the world’ (Rappeport 2019).2 What many now call ‘the China reckoning’ (e.g. Campbell and Ratner 2018) is not just a view within the Trump administration, but widely shared across political divides in the US Congress and beyond, especially 2  At the same time emphasizing his good and ‘very amazing’ relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping (ibid.).

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when it comes to US economic grievances (Bush and Hass 2019). A line of publications and commentaries concludes that ‘we’ have to realize that things did not evolve as expected, that China did not behave as anticipated and, most importantly, that ‘China did not become more like us’ (e.g. Browne 2017). Meanwhile, others are still warning against making China an enemy (Fravel et  al. 2019), while public opinion is growing increasingly negative (Silver et al. 2019). What these assessments have in common is that they revolve around the widely held assumption among US political elites about the interconnectedness of economic and political orders. In other words, and as expressed in the NSS and Pence’s speech, political liberalization was widely expected to follow on from liberal economic reform, and this line of thought has been a constant of US economic policy on China (and other countries), for instance, when it came to China’s contested accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). What makes any questioning of this principle and line of thinking significant is how intertwined it is with US identity not only as the global role model for economic and political development, but also as the quintessential great power, including the number one economy. Indeed, and as with Japan in the 1980s (see below), since the manifestation of China’s rapid economic growth there has been a prolific debate not only over China overtaking the USA economically in the future, but also on a more comprehensive ‘global power shift’ from the USA to China and consequently from West to East (e.g. Dunne et  al. 2013, 5). This debate is coupled with questions about, diagnoses of or prognoses for a decline or crisis of the USA, ‘the West’ and/or the ‘liberal world order’ in general (Cox 2012; Ikenberry 2013; Kupchan 2014; Schweller and Pu 2011). China is debated as offering alternative ‘models’ of global governance and capitalism, dubbed the ‘Beijing Consensus’, and ‘authoritarian’, ‘illiberal’ or ‘state’ capitalism (Etzioni 2011; see also Friedman and McCormick 2000; Gat 2007; Halper 2010; Rachman 2008; Wooldridge 2012). Meanwhile, China’s rise is described as a historic occurrence without precedent that should already be considered ‘the big story of our age’ along ‘the rise and fall of Rome, the Ottoman Empire, the British Raj or the Soviet Union’ (Leonard 2008, 5). Despite these ascriptions of ‘uniqueness’, there are striking parallels in that in the 1970s and 1980s Japan was hailed as an ‘economic superpower’ that had ‘miraculously emerged’ (Dower 2001, 314, 316) as the new ‘number one’ (Vogel 1979) and as a technological power that culminated in the image of a ‘Superhuman Japan’ (Thorsten 2012). In the

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1980s, this debate became a central feature and trigger of the discourse on the ‘Rise of Japan’ as a possible challenger to a liberal world order with the USA as its major proponent. What became known as the ‘Japan Problem’ (cf. Van Wolferen 1986) until the mid-1990s—and at that time led to a severe crisis in the US-Japanese relationship—bears significant resemblance to the discourse on the ‘Rise of China’ and a possible ‘China threat’ since the mid- to late 1990s. A ‘rising Japan’ was depicted as a threat not only to US economic pre-eminence, but also subsequently to the entire liberal world order and its hegemon. Japan was attributed with promoting a ‘Pax Nipponica/Japonica’, which was understood as a mercantilist order (Van Wolferen 1986; Vogel 1986; Leaver 1989; Morris 2011, 24 f.). In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the US public considered Japan’s economy to be a greater threat than the Soviet Union’s military, and most thought that Japan was already a bigger economic power than the USA (Gilpin 1989, 331; Hummel and Menzel 2001, 62; Mastanduno 1991, 74).3 Chalmers Johnson argued in 1989 that the USA should recognize that Japan had ‘replaced the USSR as America’s most important foreign policy problem’ (quoted in Mastanduno 1991, 77).4 In both cases, with Japan in the past and China more recently, the USA engaged in a domestic debate on its growing bilateral trade deficit and indebtedness vis-à-vis its main economic competitor (Destler 1998, 103). One of the main lines of argument amounts to reproaching Japan and China for their ‘unfair practices’ in the form of ‘dumping’ their cheap exports in the USA while maintaining closed markets at home (Curtis 2000; Evenett 2010; Ge 2013; cf. Keidel 2011; Otte and Grimes 1993, 121). This provides them with a competitive advantage through a distortion of the ‘level playing field’ (e.g. Nanto 1992, 1). Ironically, candidate Trump’s campaign rhetoric regarding Japan in 2016 3  In 2008, most Americans believed that China had already surpassed the USA as the world’s leading economic power (Saad 2008), and in 2018 Americans were most concerned about China’s growing economy (Wike and Devlin 2018). In 2019, China was increasingly perceived as overall threat (Silver et al. 2019). In 2019, China remains the second largest economy in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), but surpasses the USA when GDP is converted to purchasing power parity (Silver 2019). 4  This kind of assessment was already being made by observers in the early and mid-1980s. See Kennedy (1988, 600). Apparently, a negative view of Japan among the general public was far less significant than among prominent governmental, academic and media commentators (Morris 2011, 32f.), a slight similarity with public views versus those of the political establishment on China (Hass 2019).

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was still in line with Japan’s critics of the 1980s (Soble and Bradsher 2016). One of them, Robert Lighthizer, vice US Trade Representative (USTR) under Reagan, became Trump’s USTR. He is characterized as seeing China ‘as an existential threat along the lines of how he viewed Japan in the 1980s’ (Politi 2018; see also Miller 2018). Personnel continuities aside, as this book shows, chastising the most important trading partner for not playing fair, while portraying the USA as a victim, had been a persistent US political discourse long before the Trump administration came to power. In his 2011 book A Contest for Supremacy, Aaron Friedberg wrote of the challenges to the USA’s expectations of political liberalization in China, that ‘for Americans the success of a mainland regime that blends authoritarian rule with market-driven economics is a puzzle and an affront. Such a combination is not supposed to be possible, at least in the long run’ (Friedberg 2011, 43). In a 2017 article, however, he states that even ‘if China were a liberal democracy with a full market economy, the prospect of it surpassing the United States, in terms of total GDP, would be disconcerting to many Americans’ (Friedberg 2017, 97). He explains the latter by ‘the impact of Beijing’s trade and industrial policies on the future prospects of the US economy’, because China is not a market economy (ibid., 98). In other words, in the end it is the material aspects of China’s rise that matter most. What is missing from this account—and this is characteristic of most of the scholarship on US-Chinese economic relations—is how economic grievances and economic competition are not just about material factors and economic interests.5 They are deeply intertwined with identity issues and identity politics.

1.1   Aims and Contributions of the Book This book analyses the parallels in the discourses on ‘the rise of Japan’ and ‘the rise of China’ by advocating a view that goes beyond an understanding of ‘the economy’ as purely material capabilities and interests that is common in research on ‘rising powers’ and US-Chinese economic relations. It contends that US foreign economic policy on Japan and China goes beyond matters of trade and economic policy in a narrow sense and involves processes of the construction of collective and national identities in political and economic terms (cf. Nymalm 2013, 2019a). Past and 5

 Elsewhere, Friedberg writes about what he calls the role of ideology.

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current debates, in their constitution of US economic policies on Japan and China, cannot be sufficiently understood without considering them in terms of identity constructions that rely on Self/Other articulations. This assessment originates in poststructuralist theories that understand every identity as non-essential and differential, and therefore in permanent need of a constitutive outside. Political discourse theory (PDT) is proposed as a framework for analysing the role of identity in foreign economic policy, while also addressing what even proponents of PDT have called its methodological deficit (cf. Howarth 2005, 316). The book proposes a method for the application of PDT to empirical research that draws on rhetorical political analysis (RPA; e.g. Finlayson 2007). For this purpose, US congressional debates on economic policies on Japan and China in 1985–2008 were analysed as examples of the official US elite public discourse. While the time frame of the empirical analysis does not extend to the presidency of Donald Trump, his attitudes to trade with Japan and China and those of his administration make it even more compelling. His withdrawal of the USA from the Transpacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), and the debates on renegotiating the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into what became the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in October 2018, have led to criticisms in the USA that have similarities with the debates on US identity as a global leader and champion of free and fair trade analysed in this book. While the USA under Trump now questions the principles it has long advocated, because of the perceived loss of international standing resulting from the ‘liberal policies’ of the past, Trump also blames others beyond China, such as Mexico, Canada, the European Union and Japan, for problems in the USA. This again resonates with the debates analysed here. The analysis also shows that as hawkish as Trump’s language and rhetoric and the Trump administration’s approach to China have been, they did not emerge ‘out of nowhere’ but have clear precedents, and that the topics and issues raised and at times even Trump’s way of expressing them have been a constant of the US political discourse since at least the 1980s. Discourses resonate more, and have greater potential to become dominant, when they can connect to and build on pre-existing ones (cf. Auteserre 2012, 207). Moreover, this kind of political rhetoric is not unique to the USA and is becoming more widespread especially among right-wing populist leaders globally. In this sense, the questions and focus on identity politics remain salient for academia and policymaking beyond the particular cases of US-Japanese and US-Chinese relations (cf. Nymalm 2019a), and tie into the emerging field of Global Political

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Sociology (GPS) with its emphasis on the ineradicability of contingency and heterogeneity in the construction of global and local identities. The analysis starts from the perspective that these discourses reflect challenges to concepts of political and economic order that are central to the USA’s understanding of itself as ‘the global motor for democracy and progress’ (ZEIT- Stiftung 2010, 1), and therefore to ‘the entailments of US-identity’ (cf. Campbell 1994, 157). In particular, these entailments are thought to figure prominently in the concepts of American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history (cf. Nymalm 2013). The latter is characterized by the idea that the introduction of a liberal market economy will inevitably be followed by political liberalization, and thus that free trade and free markets lead to democracy and peaceful relations (cf. Mandelbaum 2002, 6). This was notoriously captured by Francis Fukuyama in his notion of ‘the end of history’ after 1989, when Fukuyama also referred to Japan as an example of the success of economic and political liberalism (Fukuyama 1989). The special role that American exceptionalism assigns to the USA is to serve as a role model and promoter of this development (Krause 2008; McEvoy-Levy 2001, 23ff.; Nabers and Patman 2008). However, Japan and China have to different extents countered or been perceived as countering the envisaged ‘universal path to progress’, and thus as challenging not only the concepts themselves, but also US identity according to these concepts as a vanguard and role model for the functioning and prospects of the ‘liberal world order’ (Layne 2014; cf. Morris 2011, 2). In other words, the USA’s self-attribution as the economic and political role model paves the way for the challenge or competition attributed to Japan in the past and China more recently. As they and their economic development do not ‘fit’ into the old paradigm, their relationship with the USA is at times characterized by Self/Other dynamics that clearly have antagonistic tendencies, driven by the aim of preserving US identity by externalizing the problem to an ‘external Other’ in the form of ‘unfair’ Japan and China (cf. Nymalm 2019a). The starting point of this book is not to posit that the ‘cases’ of Japan and China are entirely similar. On the contrary, the similarities in the elite political discourses on Japan and China, the differences in the bilateral relationships with the USA notwithstanding, are one aspect that renders studying the whole issue worthwhile. In this sense, the objective of the book is not to do a ‘cross-case comparison’, but rather to take a broader historical view, by deciphering the meaning given and the approach taken to the economic rise of China by the USA, taking account of the past

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articulation of and reaction to the economic rise of Japan. In both cases dealing with the major economic competitor bore tendencies of turning the issue of economic competition into an ideological struggle. By asking similar questions with regard to both cases (Lebow 2018, 9), the interest here lies in the possible similarities and differences—or the potential continuity and change (cf. Hansen 2006, 79)—in the logics that drive different discourses (cf. Doty 1993, 309), and in looking at ‘how certain concepts have historically functioned within discourse’ (Campbell 1998, 5; Flockhart 2013, 78f.). The book focuses on the articulations of US identity in terms of foreign economic policy on Japan and China, and on what the possible commonalities and/or differences between the Japanese and the Chinese case can reveal considering a dislocation of US identity.6 The main focus lies on how and at what points the discourses on economic issues converged to articulate Japan and China not only as the main economic competitor, but also as antagonistic Others, and on what this tells us about US identity, as well as Self/Other relationships more generally. Discourse is understood in terms of meaning-structures as well as a horizon that constitutes our reality that we cannot get outside of. The focus is therefore on the elite public discourse on the rise of Japan and China as one part of the bigger picture of how a normal or ‘hegemonic’ perspective is challenged, or dislocated, by events that cannot be reconciled with it or integrated into it. The focus on economic policy is highly relevant for three reasons. First, the whole ‘rise debate’ is mainly premised on the economic performance of Japan and China (cf. e.g. Khong 2014, 157, 162; Nabers 2010, 932), and especially on their growing share of global trade (Gilpin 1989, 329 f.; cf. e.g. Hilpert 2013).7 Second, economic issues linked to trade policy are among the most prevalent and disputed in the respective bilateral relationships. Last but not least, economic performance in terms of the success of liberal democratic capitalism has been a central feature of the USA and its self-perception as the pre-eminent economic and political role model, with respect to China in particular since the 1990s.8 When it comes to its ‘great powerness’ (cf. Agnew 2003), the USA’s self-attribution as an 6  For an emphasis on the importance of identity questions when dealing with the power shift discourse, see, for instance, Hagström and Jerdén (2014) and the other contributions in their special issue. 7  On the problematic aspects of this premise in the Chinese case, see Pan (2014, 395ff.). 8  In their study of the ‘China threat’ argument in the US print media, Yang and Liu (2012, 706) conclude that over their time period studied (1992–2006) the economic/trade threat

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e­ conomic power plays an important role in the challenge or competition attributed to Japan and China. Accordingly, one of the main contributions of this book lies in first problematizing and then proposing an alternative view to the dominant approaches in academic and policymaking circles, which overwhelmingly treat China’s growing economy as necessarily leading to a Chinese challenge or threat to the global role of the USA, and thus is in danger of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. The book shows that growing economic capabilities do not speak for themselves. Instead, who is growing or rising is important, as well as how meaning is attributed to these increased capabilities. In other words, a ‘Japan problem’ or a ‘China threat’ does not naturally follow from economic growth rates. Instead, they are discursively produced through the meaning and significance attributed to economic factors according to the USA’s perception of itself as ‘number one’ and a ‘great power’, and connected to a universalist view of how the world works in terms of development and progress (Nymalm 2019a). Here, the book advances poststructuralist criticisms of the ideational/material dichotomy from a discourse theoretical perspective and aligns itself with emerging approaches that build on PDT in International Relations (IR) and International Political Economy (IPE). Even though a lot of ink has been spilled over the importance of ‘ideational vs. material factors’, the crucial argument that poststructuralists eschew this commonly accepted dichotomy, and hence do not take sides in debates on which realm to privilege, still goes largely unheard (cf. Griffin 2018). In the words of Laclau and Mouffe: The main consequence of a break with the discursive/extra-discursive dichotomy is the abandonment of the thought/reality opposition […]. Rejection of the thought/reality dichotomy must go together with a rethinking and interpretation of the categories which have […] been considered exclusive of one or the other. (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 110, emphasis added)

In this book, the question of ‘reality versus ideas’—in PDT terms, discourse—is problematized within the framework of PDT and RPA to deal with what Jaqueline Best and Matthew Patterson summarize as a legacy of issue was the most persistent of three fields identified by them, the other two being military/strategic and political/ideological.

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‘disembedding’ economy and culture; that is, locating the economy on the ‘reality side’ and culture on the ‘ideas side’ of the presumed divide. Consequently, there is ‘ […] a lack of politics in cultural economy debates, a lack of economy in culturally inflected international/political theory and a lack of culture in international political economy’ (Best and Patterson 2010, 3).9 Second, while the book sheds light on and traces identity/difference dynamics in a particular contemporary (US-China) and a historical case (US-Japan), it also connects to the more general question of how we— both conceptually and in practice—deal with crises or dislocations to our ‘hegemonic’ ways of making sense of the world in certain categories and concepts that are connected to who we think we are and what our relationship is to others. It seems that all too often this challenge is still met with what David Campbell has called a central feature of states and their foreign policies: the externalization of an internal problematic and its attribution to an external cause or ‘enemy’ in order to account for inner deficiencies, which usually leads to a discourse on the threatening ‘adversarial’ other (cf. Campbell 1998, 62). Much of the poststructuralist work on IR that focuses on identity and Self/Other relationships, and identity and (foreign) policy practice, has sought to expose how politics is often intertwined with this kind of ‘outside’ threat construction and with turning difference into otherness, as described by Campbell and Connolly among others (e.g. Nabers 2009; Herschinger 2012; Pan 2004; Turner 2013; Doty 1993; Weldes and Saco 1996). While important, this focus has at times left other theoretical and empirical aspects underexplored. Notable exceptions aside, there remains often what Hansen has called a main focus on ‘the radical other’ (Hansen 2006, 38; see also Herschinger 2011, 7); or, as Rumelili puts it, critical constructivists and poststructuralists have ‘emphasized the ontological bases of the self/other relationships, but have not been attentive to the diversity of its behavioral manifestations’ (Rumelili 2007, 33). In other words, although Campbell’s Writing Security does not seek to extrapolate from its particular cases of US foreign policy that all identity construction looks like this (Hansen 2006, 39), it

9  By ‘culture’, they refer to the so-called cultural turn in IR with its focus on identity and ideas. For instance, the 2019 Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary International Political Economy (still) fails to include or refer to these kinds of approaches. But see, for example, Sum and Jessop (2014) for their particular take on CPE.

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does at times seem that this is nonetheless the conclusion that has been drawn (cf. also Rumelili and Todd 2018, 8).10 Relatedly, the IR scholars who rely on the work of Laclau have typically focused on what are termed his key concepts of discourse, hegemony and antagonism.11 The latter in particular has led to some lack of clarity about whether antagonisms—the drawing of boundaries between ‘us and them’ by the construction of a ‘radical Other’ to constitute/sustain the Self—are an inevitable feature of identity construction in general.12 In this book, this issue is linked to the context of previous research on the influence of American exceptionalism, the liberal theory of history and/or liberalism in a broader sense on US economic policy on Japan and China, and the question of whether a ‘liberal lens’ necessarily leads to hostile or confrontational attitudes to Japan and China. As Laclau himself pointed out, among others, ontologically speaking, antagonisms are not necessary: there are no natural or predetermined antagonisms (see Chap. 3). Moreover, in spite of the notion of discursive hegemony, discourses and identities are never really fully constituted, and thus always remain inherently unstable and vulnerable, and thus inherently dislocated. This to some extent seems to stand in contrast to the prevalent empirical (and theoretical) focus on attempts at fixation and closure, which has at times not only overlooked ‘the complexities of the processes in which political identities are forged’, but potentially also led to the belief that ‘all identity has to be thought in the form us/them’ (Norval 1997, 72).13 For political analysis, this is ‘potentially very damaging’ as ‘it tends to direct attention to the moment of exclusion, to the development of antagonisms, that is, to the relation to “the other” at the expense of an analysis of those dimensions of identity which cannot be captured in the us/them form’ (ibid.). In this respect, Thomassen (2005, 2019) reminds us that there is yet another concept that should receive more attention in Laclau’s theory—the notion of heterogeneity 10  Discussions of to what extent these are ‘ontological features’ in Campbell’s and also Connolly’s work are not entirely clear and (implicitly) interpreted mostly in this way, see Berenskoetter and Nymalm, under review. 11  A growing but still limited number, see overview on IR and IPE in Stengel and Nabers (2019). 12  More broadly, also about whether the theory is about the articulation of meaning and identity as such, or in particular instances (Thomassen 2005, 293). 13  This was in fact upheld by Chantal Mouffe at a public seminar in Stockholm in 2019, see: https://vimeo.com/364040324?fbclid=IwAR2dKF5jY12InB5kexRn90adfqj2ou6KM 2ZkAHL8GL6klpSffIZ35BUVQEY (accessed 26 November 2019).

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15

developed mainly in On Populist Reason (2005). Heteroneneity is hardly mentioned at all, and then only briefly, in work on Laclau in IR, with the notable exception of Herschinger (2011). The notion of heterogeneity is important in addressing the above question, as it ‘refers to an excess escaping the attempt to discursively objectify the boundaries of identities’ and thus always subverts antagonisms as attempts at discursive closure (Thomassen 2019, 43f.). Similarly, engaging with heterogeneity ‘has implications for how one analyses discourses’. The analysis should focus on whether antagonism is the response to dislocation: ‘Discourse analysis can neither assume antagonism to be always in existence nor can it consist only in looking for antagonisms to emerge. A discourse analysis must examine whether and why an antagonism was constructed, and it must examine how the antagonism is never fully constituted and may subsequently be transformed’ (ibid. 48–49; see also Rumelili and Todd 2018, 8). This book highlights the role of heterogeneity when it comes to the construction of antagonisms. As the analysis shows, there is no ‘automatism’ leading from dislocation to antagonism, or from ‘difference’ to a threat discourse. Instead, what we see is a discursive struggle in which difference and the relations between Self and Other are interpreted in multiple ways. The empirical analysis finds that for the Self, expectations of change in/of the Other play a crucial role when it comes to whether antagonisms are constituted. In other words, it is not difference per se, but the potential attributed to difference to become sameness—or the likelihood of the Other becoming more like the Self—that accounts for the Other being articulated as a ‘radical Other’ or not. This in turn connects to IR scholarship on identity change, identity types, and consensus and contestation (cf. Rumelili and Todd 2018, 11), which are briefly addressed in Chap. 3. In the cases analysed, this ambiguity of and heterogeneity pertaining to identity/difference finds its expression in the articulation and contestation of US free trade policies, in line with the liberal theory of history and American exceptionalism, where it is disputed whether trade is supposed to have an impact on political and societal change in and of Japan and China. Looking more closely at these ambiguities adds nuance to the study of identity in IR and IPE. In addition, ‘the outcome’ will play a major role when it comes to the future of US-Chinese relations, which will obviously affect global politics: ‘different degrees of otherness’ involve different policies to be pursued in response (Hansen 2006, 43).

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1.2   The Cases: Discourses on ‘Rising Japan’ and ‘Rising China’, and US Trade Policy Apart from a number of articles and commentaries that briefly allude to certain similarities (Bhagwati 2002; Friedberg 2011, 49; Hale and Hale 2003; Hanke 2005, 2008; Layne 2012; Morris 2011, 141; e.g. Prestowitz 2010; Rachman 2011; Tsuchiyama 2010; Foot 2017), there is no comprehensive inquiry into US-China policies in the light of the Japanese case in the existing literature. There are treatments of specific economic aspects (Thirkell-White 2013) such as the trade imbalances in connection to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)/WTO trading system (Bown and McCulloch 2009), or Chinese investment in the USA (Milhaupt 2012). In addition, there are only a few studies on US-Chinese relations more generally, or economic relations in particular, that explicitly adopt a non-positivist, or even discourse-focused or analytical perspective (e.g. Blanchard 2012; Goh 2005; Ling 2002, 2013; Pan 2004, 2012; Slingerland et al. 2007; Turner 2013, 2014).14 This is surprising, as a number of scholars in the field of US-Japanese economic relations have taken approaches to refer to, or to build on regarding this aspect. Whereas the small number of nonpositivist approaches in this field is of course not ‘problematic’ per se, a lack of diversity in approaches to this widely studied and important topic is a disadvantage not only for the academic field, but also for policymaking. The dominance of rationalist and policy-oriented approaches appears to have had an impact on the tendency to view China as an objective threat that calls for certain concrete responses on the ground (Ling 2013; Pan 2004). Japan and China were initially applauded and admired for their economic development. Both were ascribed the status of an economic miracle. Eventually, however, with Japan from the 1970s and China from the 1990s, issues of economic policy became among the most contentious topics in the bilateral relationship. In the 1980s with respect to Japan, and since the early to mid-1990s with respect to China, the US Congress, the media and public opinion began to exert pressure on the executive to ‘get tough’, while the president and his cabinet—at least until the Trump presidency—were generally speaking more concerned about the implications and consequences for the overall character for the bilateral relationship (Curtis 2000, 29; Otte and Grimes 1993, 110) and the prospects for 14  As Jarod Hayes notes, ‘constructivist’ work on US-Chinese relations has tended to focus on China (Hayes 2013, 107).

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17

cooperation on a global scale (cf. Sewell Chan 2010, 1; Morrison 2014, 37). Regarding China, a significant debate emerged over one of the central premises of US foreign economic policy in the late 1990s. The USA was a major proponent of the transformative effect of liberal free trade policy on the economic and political system of its trading partners. This was a key issue for supporters of China’s contested entry into the WTO in 2001 (cf. Clinton in New York Times 2000). At that time, President Clinton’s central argument, besides the benefits for the US economy, was that opening up China’s markets would undermine the control of the Communist Party (Sanger 2000, 1). By contrast, these premises and policies were later to a large extent articulated, not only in Congress, but also in the media and public opinion (cf. Conconi et al. 2011; Nymalm 2011), as having significantly contributed to the trade imbalance with China, which is widely considered ‘a symbol of American decline [that] poisoned many Americans’ view of free trade’ (Lightizer 2010, 1). The most alarmist voices were already in the early 2000s picturing an economically more powerful but still ‘illiberal’ China as an economic and security threat not only to the USA, but also to the future of the ‘free world’. Even more moderate assessments predicted at least a future trade war between China and the USA (Hughes 2005; cf. Samuelson 2010, 1). A trade war was indeed launched by the Trump administration in January 2018, when as noted above the USA imposed tariffs on imported solar panels that hit China as the major exporter, and continued throughout 2019 with tariffs worth $360 billion on Chinese goods, and Chinese countermeasures amounting to $110 billion in tariffs (BBC 2020). In addition, as noted above, the liberal theory of history has been pronounced outdated by key members of the Trump administration, while China scholars continue to warn about treating China as an enemy, and the question remains how economic relations will evolve in the future. Like those who question the success of the ‘liberal free trade agenda’ with respect to China since the 1990s, in the case of Japan the socalled revisionists did not believe in its transforming impact either. Having advocated their understanding of how to deal with the ‘Japan problem’ since the mid-1980s, they gained significant influence during the end of the administration of George H. W. Bush and the early

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years of the Clinton administration (Curtis 2000, 30; Gilpin 2003, 299).15 The revisionists argued that Japan and its trade policies were different, closed and adversarial to the USA and that as a consequence Japan would not pursue the path of market liberalization envisaged by the USA (Uriu 2000, 214), or even that it constituted a distinctive kind of capitalism (Gilpin 2003, 299). This assessment differed from previous decades, when Japan was generally still regarded as having successfully internalized the rules of the Western liberal international economic order, and when its success as a market economy was seen as an important example of ‘validating’ the US economic model (Campbell 1994; Nanto 1992, 2; Uriu 2000, Miller 2018, 143). By the end of the 1980s, however, it was even being argued that ‘Japanese culture’ might be incompatible with ‘the West’, as Japan in this view was considered a ‘non-Western and nonliberal society’ (i.e. Gilpin 1987, 391) that could not participate in the western liberal economic order without losing its ‘Japanese character’ (Búzás 2012, 241).16 These revisionist arguments finally contributed to the so-called results-oriented policy in trade negotiations with Japan under President Clinton (cf. Curtis 2000, 31), which was ultimately unsuccessful.17 After the failure of a presidential summit in 1994, the US government silently backed away from this approach (cf. Schoppa 1999, 328f.).18 By then, revisionism had contributed to what was the most bitter confrontation between the USA and Japan in the post-war period (Curtis 2000, 19; cf. Otte and Grimes 1993, 138) and had been attributed the potential to slowly undermine the conceptual basis of US-Japanese relations. The US strategy provoked a strongly negative reaction especially in Asia, where successive Japanese prime ministers 15  The main proponents of the ‘revisionist’ line were James Fallows, Chalmers Johnson, Clyde Prestowitz and Karel van Wolferen, also known at that time as ‘the Gang of Four’. For a self-assessment and presentation of their main arguments, see Fallows et al. (1990). The revisionist label was coined by Robert Neff in the magazine Business Week in 1989 (cf. Brink and Lukas 1998). 16  Notably, USTR Lighthizer has been characterized as holding ‘this idea of essential Chinese-ness that is not going to change, ever,’ and that in his mind there would be ‘no hope for compliant China on the terms the US would want, because “they are not like that”’ (Slobodian, quoted in Politi 2018). 17  The USA demanded concrete, measurable indicators, such as certain percentages for imports to Japan. What mattered were the results, not how they were achieved (Nanto 1992, 19). 18  Both sides interpreted a partial agreement reached later in 1994 and 1995 in different ways (Cohen et al. 1996, 191–92).

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19

were credited with ‘standing up for Japan’ and for their ability to ‘say no’ to the USA (Curtis 2000, 32). The revisionist debates in the USA had not only triggered counterparts in Japan, which also articulated Japan as ‘different’ albeit in a positive sense (Hummel 2000, Chap. 7; Otte and Grimes 1993, 117ff.; see also Wampler 2001, 257f.), but also prompted a heated domestic debate between those who advocated a more farreaching internationalization of Japan, and those calling for greater national and regional independence (cf. Otte and Grimes 1993, 137).19 The ‘Japan problem’ seemingly vanished in the context of the ensuing Asian financial crisis and the difficulties of the Japanese stock and real estate market, as well as with the commencement of economic growth in China, as the USA’s attention shifted in the mid-1990s from Tokyo to Beijing (Bob 2001, 95; cf. Curtis 2000, 32; Friedberg 2011, 49; Kirshner 2008, 247; Morris 2011, 137f.; Stone 1999, 265; see also Yang and Liu 2012, 707).20 Thus far, there seems to be no ‘sorting itself out’ foreseeable in the ongoing Sino-US economic conflict, in particular since the beginning of the Trump presidency, but at least no one is seriously hoping for a fundamental crisis in the Chinese economy as a ‘solution’ (cf. Womack 2016). From ‘Japan Problem’ to ‘China Threat’? In a short passage where he reflects on US-Japanese economic disputes in the 1980s as a ‘precedent’ to US-Chinese economic issues, Friedberg argues that in the Japanese case the political foundation of ‘a sense of shared democratic values’ prevented the relationship from collapsing as a result of the trade disputes. In the case of China, he sees trade as having ‘helped hold the United States and China together’ in the past, and thus classifies the ensuing trade disputes with China as a potential catalyst for an unravelling of the entire relationship (Friedberg 2011, 49; see also Foot 2017, 840). In his seminal study of Clinton’s Japan policy, Uriu too 19  A 1992 report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) on trade policy on Japan states that ‘according to polls taken before the Soviet Union collapsed, young Japanese considered war with the United States more likely than with the Soviet Union […]’ (Nanto 1992, 13). One of the most prominent, albeit controversial, Japanese responses was the 1989 publication The Japan that Can Say No by Shintaro Ishihara. 20  Uriu diagnoses ‘Japan fatigue’ within the Clinton administration, which resulted in many officials wanting to have as little to do with Japan as possible. This was perceived in Japan as ‘Japan passing’, or a shift of US interest to China (Uriu 2009, 240).

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speaks of having a sense of déjà-vu in watching the development of US attitudes to and rhetoric on economic competition with China. Nonetheless, he points out that for a replay of the US-Japanese tensions of the 1990s three factors in US-Chinese economic relations would have to change: Chinese investment in the USA would have to increase; China would have to be perceived as a threat to the USA’s high-tech industries; and there would have to be a unified ‘theory’, such as revisionism (Uriu 2009, 244). Writing at an earlier point in time, John Kunkel also posits three differences. He sees the industry factor in the same way but argues that initially there was no problem with market access to China as there had been to Japan. Moreover, in his view ‘the different nature of the US-China relationship may make US policy makers think twice before embarking on an aggressive market access approach similar to President Clinton’s results-oriented Japan policy’ (Kunkel 2003, 197). However, this ‘different nature’ is no guarantee of a more cautious approach. Instead, the overall bilateral character of the relationship between China and the USA—which obviously does differ to a large extent from Japanese-US relations in the 1980s—could add to tensions over economic policy. After World War II, Japan was quickly acknowledged as a member of the ‘Western’ (in terms of OECD) world, through having successfully internalized the norms of the liberal international economic order (Campbell 1994, 153). The US-Japanese alliance became viewed as ‘the most important pillar of security and political order in the Asia Pacific’ (i.e. Ikenberry and Inoguchi 2003, 1). The former Prime Minister of Japan, Yasuhiro Nakasone, once referred to Japan as the USA’s ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Asia Pacific’ (cf. Sanger 1995). The expression ‘most important bilateral relationship of the world’, which is attributed to Japan (e.g. Otte and Grimes 1993, 110), is often ascribed to the Sino-US relationship as well (e.g. Xie 2009, 1). However, this is rarely a reference to the quality of the relationship, but to the global political challenges that confront the two countries that call for cooperation (e.g. Morrison 2014, 38). Although—contrary to Japan—China had been a US ally during World War II, after the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 it became a Cold War adversary that remained ‘ideologically suspicious’ also after the rapprochement in the 1970s.21 In the USA, a general ideological mistrust of ‘communist China’ persists 21  For historical accounts on the interchangeability of Japan and China as ‘friend and enemy’ in US

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(e.g. Friedberg 2011, 2, 42f.; Yee and Storey 2002, 2–6), and at the time of writing the number of conciliatory voices has significantly decreased (e.g. The Economist 2018b). China is largely perceived as an ideological and strategic rival (The Economist 2018c), especially when it comes to the government level. For example, at a Senate hearing in April 2018, the FBI director stated that they were ‘trying to […] view the China threat as not just a whole of government threat, but a whole of society threat on their end’. A year later, the FBI barred a number of Chinese scholars from visiting the USA (Perlez 2019). In March 2019, a Committee on the Present Danger: China was established in order to ‘educate and inform American citizens and policymakers about the existential threats presented from the Peoples Republic of China under the misrule of the Chinese Communist Party’.22 Last but not least, looking at ‘brute material factors’, when it comes to China’s size, its population, and its weight and role in the Asia-Pacific region, China is commonly regarded as operating at a different level—economically as well as strategically—than Japan ever did (Nymalm 2011a).23 While Japan in the 1980s was competing in the high-tech sector to a larger extent than China has thus far (Thirkell-White 2013, 167), China is making significant advances in this area and commentators are already alluding to the new ‘tech war’ between the USA and China (Ferguson 2019). In this context, Chinese investment in the USA has also evolved into a contentious issue (Yoon-Hendricks 2018). These differences are met by the two major similarities between Japan and China in their relationship with the USA. First, there is the size of the bilateral trade deficit with the USA, which has resulted in each becoming a major US creditor and brings with it a kind of mutual dependence in both cases.24 Second, there is the ensuing debate on Japan’s and China’s discourse, see, for example, Hunt (1987, 69–91) and Jespersen (1996, Chaps. 3 and 9). On the ‘Yellow Peril’ more broadly, see, for example, Tchen and Yeats (2014). 22  See: https://presentdangerchina.org/about-us/ (accessed 18 April 2019). Its members include several former defence and intelligence officials. The former White House strategist, Steve Bannon, two Republican Senators and the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, gave speeches at its launch event (Rogin 2019). 23  Bearing in mind that a crucial argument of this book is that material factors alone do not determine what this means for the US-Chinese (or any other) relationship. Instead, the meaning attributed to these factors, and what it takes to render them significant, must be taken into account. 24  On China having replaced Japan, but not yet to the same extent, see, for example, Layne (2007, 154). On the ‘dependence’ of the USA on China as an export market and a financer

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economic performance, and the implications this has for both the economic and the political relationship with the USA. Does it pose a challenge to the USA in terms of its global leadership and role model status in economic and political development?

1.3   Sources and Time Frame The analysis focuses on the elite official/public discourse on Japan and China,25 as exemplified through a discourse and rhetorical analysis of congressional debates on US-Japanese and US-Chinese economic policies between 1985 and 2008. These are taken from the Congressional Record, and include testimonies, hearings and votes, and so on, in the Senate and the House of Representatives. The book focuses on the US Congress as an example of elite public discourse on Japan and China for several reasons. First, Congress plays a central role when it comes to economic policy on Japan and China, in terms of both its high level of public visibility/audibility and its role in and impact on economic policymaking (Morris 2011, 56–63; cf. i.e. Xie 2009, 58). The US Constitution in Article I, Section 8 guarantees Congress the right and duty ‘to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises […]; to borrow money on the credit of the United States; to regulate Commerce with Foreign Nations […]’.26 However, since the 1930s (particularly since the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934) it has repeatedly delegated certain rights to the president, especially when it comes to trade agreements, as, for example, through the so-called Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) (Kunkel 2003, 28f.; cf. Scherrer 1999, 53). Nonetheless, the president must always remain aware of congressional attitudes in order to avoid driving it to reclaim its constitutional primacy over trade issues, especially as broadly speaking the positions on of the budget deficit through its large holdings of US Treasury securities see Morrison (2014, Summary). 25  For example, public opinion or popular culture are not included here, while bearing in mind that ‘it cannot be naturally assumed that a “discursive fit” between the elite discourse and people’s traditional conception of the world exists all the time. Although the ruling group pursues the establishment of hegemony, there is always a possibility that common sense in civil society would resist and defeat the elite hegemonic project’ (Cha 2015, 4). See also Hansen (2006) on different research designs that correspond to different analytical research goals. 26  For the authenticated text of the Constitution, see: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/ CDOC-110hdoc50/pdf/CDOC-110hdoc50.pdf (accessed 28 March 2015).

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trade liberalization and free trade have always been more reserved in Congress compared to the generally pro-free trade orientation of the president (Schoppa 1997, 62f.).27 Trade relations with Japan have been characterized as ‘to a considerable extent more a matter of relations between the administration and Congress than between the US government and Japan’ (Curtis 2000, 20). The 1980s are the starting point. This decade is generally considered a turning point in US-Japanese relations, marked by the most heated disputes on economic issues (cf. i.e. Hummel 2000, 142, 188, 219; Mastanduno 1992, 240) when trade became a partisan issue in Congress (cf. Kunkel 2003, 52), disputed between Congress and the executive (Mastanduno 1992, 263) and a prominent topic in elections (cf. Hummel 2000, 140). For instance, over 300 ‘protectionist’ bills were debated in Congress in 1985 (cf. Kolkmann 2005, 41; Schoppa 1997, 66). Moreover, the 1980s is considered the decade when negative views of and harsh rhetoric on Japan entered the public discourse, especially in the USA (cf. Morris 2011, 23). Around the mid-1990s, the political attention started to shift from Japan to China, and this trend was also observable in scholarly interest in ‘the Rise of China’ (for an overview cf. i.e. Goldstein 1997, 3), while Congress came to play a central role in trade policy on China mainly with respect to the question of granting Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) to China prior to its accession to the WTO. The original empirical study of the congressional record ended with China surpassing Japan as the largest creditor of the USA in 2008. This book has since been updated to take account of developments beyond Congress afterwards, especially under the Trump presidency. Whereas there is hardly any literature explicitly focused on US-Japan congressional policymaking (an exception is Bob 2001), apart from the specific Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports on these issues (cf. i.e. Jackson 1990 and Nanto 1992), Congress is usually at least addressed in the cited works on US-Japanese trade relations. This is slightly different in the Chinese case, where scholars emphasize the role and impact of Congress, especially when it comes to trade issues and legislation (cf. 27  Most authors classify the free trade view as hegemonic as it has guided US trade policy since the Great Depression, in terms of being ‘orthodox’ (Schoppa 1997, 70), a ‘shared belief system’ (Kunkel 2003, 24) and a ‘consensus’ (Goldstein 1993, 247). President Trump is most open in deviating from this view, but there have been other contestations in the past, for example, under President Reagan.

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Gagliano 2014, 1f., 135ff.; Xie 2009, 1ff., 58, 60ff.; Yang 2000, 11f., 75ff., see also Chap. 1). Finally, Joseph Gagliano points out, Congress presents ‘two faces’: [F]irst, it serves as a single deliberative body that considers policy issues that face the nation-state, where the goal of the legislature is to pursue policies that maximize interests in the international arena. Second, Congress represents an assembly of ambassadors from each of the 50 states and 435 districts, where each member pursues policies that tend to the interests of their constituents at the national level. (Gagliano 2014, 6)

The focus on the congressional debates on Japan- and China-related economic policy enables analysis of how US identity as a global economic and political leader and role model has been affected by the rise of potential competitors. These sources therefore allow broader global (first face), as well as domestic (second face) issues that were raised and considered significant in the discussions during the time period analysed to be taken into account. Furthermore, while Congress as the legislative body clearly forms part of the elite public discourse, its ‘second face’ not only accounts for its statewide representativeness, to a certain extent, but also serves as a link to constituents and voters, and hence to public opinion that is otherwise not explicitly considered in this book. While the debates in form of the Congressional Record are publicly accessible (and some sessions are open to the public), they are not directed to an outside audience in the sense of directly addressing it, as, for example, press statements by the executive are, or to the media more generally. In taking the US Congress as an example, the focus is not on specific legislation in terms of how it came about or whether it was passed. Instead, the debates in Congress are taken as example of the overall discourse on Japan’s and China’s economic rise. The central question is ‘how the text argues, not what it says’, or in this case also not who says something but how it is said (Torfing 2005, 41).28 Importantly, the decision to focus on speech in the form of documents contained in the Congressional Record simply refers to the form and character of the sources; it does not imply a reduction of everything to language as opposed to ‘real action’, which would make no sense within the concept of discourse used (cf. Nonhoff 28  Although, ultimately, these aspects cannot of course be treated as strictly separate matters.

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2011, 96). Furthermore, the distinction between and spotlight on one field of elite discourse and on economic matters is purely a pragmatic and analytical device that is internal to the concept of discourse (cf. Howarth and Stavrakakis 2000, 4). The analysis focuses on how the discourses evolved in years of key events in the field of economic, and especially trade, policy: (a) 1985, the Plaza Accords and first year since 1945 that the USA became a debtor country; (b) 1989, the Structural Impediments Initiative (SII) and the end of the Cold War; (c) 1994–1995, trade summits with Japan and debates on China’s Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status; (d) 1997, the Asian financial crisis; (e) 2000–2001, China’s accession to the WTO; (f ) 2005, China announces the end of the exclusive dollar peg of its currency, and debates on the acquisition of a Californian oil company (Unocal) by a Chinese company (CNOOC); and (g) 2008, the ‘outbreak’ of the financial crisis and China becomes the USA’s largest creditor. While the events of 1985, 1989, 1994–1995, 2000–2001 and 2005 are more Japan-/ China-specific, albeit with global implications, the end of the Cold War, the Asian financial crisis and the 2008 financial crisis are global economic developments that still allow a particular focus on the relationship between the USA and the respective number two economy. The aim is thus not to study these ‘events’ in particular but to take them as reference points while aiming to identify continuities and changes in US identity articulation over a longer period.

1.4   Overview of the Chapters The book is divided into two parts: one theoretical/methodological and one empirical. Chapter 2 briefly introduces the relevant previous scholarship on US-Chinese and US-Japanese economic relations, and on ideas, discourse and identity in IR and IPE.  Section 2.3 addresses the role of American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history as constitutive features of US identity, and their influence on formulating economic, and especially trade, policy on Japan and China. Section 2.4 picks up on the identity/difference question in the scholarship on liberalism and connects it to questions on the link between ‘identity’ and ‘othering’ addressed in detail in Chap. 3. Chapter 3 lays out the central theoretical and philosophical premises of political discourse theory (PDT), by problematizing the ideas/materiality dichotomy from a discourse theoretical perspective. The chapter expands

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on core PDT concepts: discourse (Sect. 3.1), identity (Sect. 3.2) and dislocation, antagonism and heterogeneity (Sect. 3.3). Section 3.4 addresses how the ambivalence and heterogeneity of identity/difference can be captured through a discourse and rhetorical analysis. The analytic categories for the analysis of the textual material based on the key concepts of PDT are set out, as well as how to put them into practice by drawing on rhetorical political analysis (RPA). Furthermore, the practical issues of the gathering, selection and organization of the sources from the congressional record, the time frame examined and the structuring of the analysis are addressed in more detail. Chapter 4 provides a brief overview of the main topics and the historical context of the congressional debates analysed. Chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8 constitute the discourse and rhetorical analysis conducted on the years around the selected events and address the major topics of the economic discourses on Japan and China, structured according to the analytical categories derived from PDT and RPA. The conclusions provide an outlook on US-Chinese economic relations in connection with the major findings of the study and discuss developments in the light of the Trump presidency.

CHAPTER 2

State of the Art and Key Concepts

2.1   US-Chinese and US-Japanese Economic Relations1 Since the 1990s, International Relations (IR) research on US-Chinese relations has focused on a potential power shift from the USA to China, and whether in consequence there will be conflict or cooperation between the two (e.g. Bernstein and Munro 1997; Betts 2010; Buzan and Cox 2013; Glaser 2011; Ikenberry and Moon 2008; Ross 1997; Shambaugh 2010; Yan and Qi 2012; Zhao 2008; Mearsheimer 2014; Allison 2017). The prevailing frameworks that underlie the work of most scholars, either implicitly or explicitly, are power-transition theory (PTT) (Friedman 2011; Jeffery 2009; Levy 2008) and hegemonic stability theory (HST) (Kupchan 2014; Chan et al. 2018).2 Both treat economic growth as the factor enabling the transition. ‘Power’ is understood as material capabilities and resources and ‘transitioning’—more often than not accompanied by conflict—as changes in the relative distribution of such

 Parts of this section draw on Nymalm (2019a).  In a nutshell, PTT and HST presume that conflict in the form of war is most likely when a dissatisfied challenger enters into approximate parity with the dominant power (cf. Organski and Kugler 1980). For a profound critique of HST as Eurocentric, see Hobson (2012, 193–203). 1 2

© The Author(s) 2020 N. Nymalm, From ‘Japan Problem’ to ‘China Threat’?, Global Political Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44951-3_2

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power.3 Thus, economic performance is a requirement for ‘great powerness’ and ‘being on top’ (Agnew 2003). Assessments of the importance of economic factors in the broad IR-paradigms and their take on US-Chinese relations largely adopt a rationalist epistemology assuming that economic growth speaks for itself. According to the realist paradigm broadly speaking, the Chinese economy has the potential to overtake the US economy, which makes it the challenger to the dominant power according to PTT (Kirshner 2008). Liberal, and to some extent also constructivist, scholars focus on the economy mostly as a potentially pacifying effect linked to the economic interdependence brought about by international institutions and international cooperation (Friedberg 2005, 12; Rousseau 2006, 30; Weede 2010).4 The literature on ‘China threat theory’ is linked both to the assumptions of PTT regarding the likelihood of conflict and to the centrality of economic growth in assessments of power (Yee and Storey 2002, 9; see also Johnston 2003, 25–26, 28–29). The factors taken into account when assessing the ‘China threat’ can be summarized as China’s rapid economic growth in the first instance and its authoritarian single-­party political system (Yee and Storey 2002, 2–6; see also Johnston 2003, 5; Khong 2014, 157). While economic growth therefore plays a significant role in the discourse on a China threat, the majority of specialist studies focused explicitly on economic questions related to trade and economic issues are policy-centred (e.g. Bergsten et al. 2008; Hufbauer et al. 2006; Morrison et al. 2006), albeit partly focused on a potential power-transition in the economic realm (Subramanian 2011). They typically take China’s rise as a given objective fact and do not question the underlying assumption that China’s growing economy necessarily constitutes a power shift or a potentially non-peaceful power transition (see also Agnew 2003, 70). This traditional understanding of China’s economic power has occasionally been critiqued (Chan 2014; Pan 2014), but hardly anything in the literature questions the meaning of the trade imbalance between China and the USA in terms that go beyond economic factors such as resources and material capabilities. Although a growing strand of the literature advocates 3  PTT is as contested as it is widely used. Authors criticize it, for example, as empirically invalid (Lebow and Valentino 2009), for its misuse of historical analogies (Jeffery 2009, 311), for its theoretical limitations (Levy 2008) and due to the danger that it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy (Chan 2008, 123). 4  Constructivist work on US-Chinese relations has generally tended to focus on China (Hayes 2013, 107).

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a different perspective on the economy—for instance, the ‘cultural (political) economy’ approach (Best and Patterson 2010, 4–5)—the so-called cultural turn in IR, with its focus on identity and norms, has not greatly affected mainstream International Political Economy (IPE) (Abdelal et al. 2010, 3; De Goede 2006, 1; Griffin 2011). The realm of foreign economic policy remains under-theorized with respect to these aspects (Christensen et al. 2006, 390). There are only few exceptions (e.g. Paulsen 1999; Scherrer 1999) in the vast amount of literature on US foreign and trade policy in a wider international context (Kolkmann 2005, 29–32). More specific work on US congressional China (trade) policy—although detailed—is largely topic- and procedure-oriented (Gagliano 2014; Kolkmann 2005; Xie 2009; Yang 2000) and focuses on ‘what is being said and done’, not on ‘how’ or what this might tell us beyond the economic issues at stake.5 All of these treat trade as one of the most important topics in congressional policymaking, but do not connect it to broader questions regarding the potential consequences for US global leadership or a possible the USA’s decline linked to the rise of China. On the question of the influence of the liberal theory of history on trade policy, the most prominent literature dealing with US trade policy and ‘ideas’ focuses on economic liberalism and the history of economic theory, the question of its institutionalization and the role of US institutions in liberal as opposed to protectionist trade policy (Bailey et al. 1997; Friman 1993; Goldstein 1988, 1993; Irwin and Kroszner 1999). For the most part, it is centred on political sponsorship (Jacobsen 2003, 48).6 The focus is rarely explicitly on the question of how the line of thinking that free trade promotes political liberalization is articulated in practice through foreign economic policy. If mentioned at all, it is mostly just referred to as a ‘common perception among policymakers’ that is taken for granted (Friedberg 2012, 1; López-Córdova and Meissner 2011, 540). As to the liberal argument that trade interdependence leads to peace (e.g. Barbieri 2005), which is connected to democratic and/or liberal peace

5  For overviews, see Gagliano (2014, 32–37), Xie (2009, 7–9), Yang (2000, 11–12, 46–73); on Congress and trade policy, see Kolkmann (2005, 28–32). 6  For critiques of Goldstein and Keohane, see Finlayson (2004, 533), Gofas and Hay (2010, 19–21, 23–28), Jacobsen (2003, 48) and Laffey and Weldes (1997, 198f).

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theory,7 and in newer versions to ‘capitalist’ peace theory,8 this rarely focuses explicitly on trade policy in terms of advocating an implementation of the liberal theory of history.9 This is also the case with the extensive literature on ‘liberalism’ in its broader sense, going beyond the economic sphere and linking it to the philosophical tradition. In sum, the ‘transformation’ or articulation of what are treated as ideas into policymaking using the example of trade policy is not an extensive point of focus (Boucoyannis 2007, 704ff., 708; Deudney and Ikenberry 1993; Doyle 1983b, 342; for a notable exception, see Jahn 2013, Chap. 5). Jahn criticizes the disciplinary distinction of liberal theories in IR, which ‘tend to focus either on the political or the economic or the normative issue areas’ (2013, 22). The gap between ‘topic-related’ research, on the one hand, and ‘ideas-related’ research, on the other (cf. Miyoshi 1991, 62; Pan 2012, 86f.; Turner 2014, 16f., 32), is rarely bridged. This is surprising, since there is scholarship to connect to among the literature on US-Japanese economic relations. There is plentiful scholarship on US-Japanese economic relations— especially trade—during the 1980s and 1990s (for an overview, see e.g. Uriu 2009, 35). While most scholars generally take a rather ‘topic-­ oriented’ or policy-focused approach, a few studies adopt a different perspective on economic issues and some explicitly include the role of identity and discourse. Revisionism is treated in several works on US economic policy on Japan. Uriu probably provides one of the most detailed and comprehensive accounts of the ‘revisionist turn’ in US-Japan policy. The start of the revisionist discourse is commonly attributed to the article The Danger from Japan by Theodore H. White (T. H. White 1985; cf. Hummel and Menzel 2001, 58). Uriu summarizes revisionism as three major assumptions: (a) that the Japanese economy was inherently closed, protected by tariff- and non-tariff barriers such as state regulations and economic practices; (b) that the Japanese economy exemplified a unique form of 7  Examples and overviews in Owen (1997, 2005), Friedman and McCormick (2000, relating to China), Sjoberg (2013) and Copeland (2014). 8  See, for example, Gartzke and Hewitt (2010), McDonald (2009), Mueller (2010), Schneider and Gleditsch (2010) and Weede (2005, 2010). 9  McDonald argues that the ‘capitalist peace’ accounts for China’s role in the international system, but not the ‘democratic peace’ (2009, 287). For differentiation between ‘liberalism’ and ‘capitalism’ more generally, see Jahn (2013, 12). On what he calls ‘OECD-peace’, see Hummel (2000, 117).

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capitalism, so that liberalizing market rules and processes would not achieve the goal of increasing exports to Japan; and (c) that the Japanese economic system was adversarial and a threat, as it was planned in order to achieve industrial dominance by undermining its foreign competitors, as well as to maximize economic power as a general source of power. The revisionist policy prescriptions for the USA that flowed from these assumptions were to recognize Japan as ‘different, closed and threatening’, to meet the economic challenge by emulating Japanese institutions and practices and to pursue numerical targets for gaining access to the Japanese market (Uriu 2009, 17).10 While empirically rich, Uriu’s approach is also characteristic of the way in which ‘ideas’ are treated as ‘non-material variables’ in more mainstream IR and IPE (see Sect. 2.2). He stresses the aim of analysing revisionism within a framework of conceptualizing the impact of ‘non-material variables—new policy ideas—to explain changes in interests and policy choices’ and argues that it was the ‘revisionist idea’ that Japan was different, adversarial and closed that led to the significant change in Japan policy at the beginning of the administration of President Bill Clinton (Uriu 2000, 214, 221; 2009). Using his understanding of revisionism as a ‘policy assumption’—a ‘non-material variable’—he traces its influence by attributing it to certain actors whose central or crucial roles then explain or account for the impact of revisionism within the Clinton administration (Uriu 2009, 10). This can be linked to the political sponsorship focus mentioned above.11 In other seminal works on US-Japanese (economic) relations, whereas Schoppa examines the question of the effects of US negotiation strategies with Japan and Curtis provides an overview of US policy on Japan from Nixon to Clinton, both come close to Uriu’s assessments of the influence of revisionism on US policy on Japan (Curtis 2000, 1–39; Schoppa 1997, 69f.). The shift in US attention from Japan to China is commonly attributed to a rising Chinese and a declining Japanese economy (Bob 2001, 95; cf. Curtis 2000, 32; Kunkel 2003, 197f.). Uriu briefly considers other factors, such as ‘Japan fatigue’ within the Clinton administration (Uriu 10  For a self-characterization of the ‘Gang of Four’ (see Chap. 1), and a clarification of their stance against what they perceived as a distorted view, see Fallows et al. (1990). 11  Uriu defines policy assumptions as ‘prior accepted beliefs about the nature of a policy issue and the interests involved in that issue’, and thus as ‘a more concrete, tangible, and visible manifestation of ideas or beliefs’ (Uriu 2009, 10).

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2009, 240), but without going deeper or exploring any ‘identity issues’ behind it.12 Even though Japan was a US ally, it is also possible to find work that deals with the question of whether trade frictions might evolve into a security/military competition (for overviews, see e.g. Berger 1993; Gilpin 1989; Mastanduno 1991). Here especially, Berger (1993, 122) criticizes the ‘inevitability’ ascribed to Japan seeking a greater military role following on from its economic growth.13 Huntington for example argued that Japan had ‘accepted all the assumptions of realism [maximization of power to ensure security in an anarchic world, first and foremost through military power] but applied them purely in the economic realm’ (Huntington 1993, 72), a view that to some extent overlaps with revisionism.14 While other scholars in turn look more broadly at how liberalism and ‘the liberal world order’ became contested as hegemonic discourses by revisionism at the time (e.g. O’Tuathail 1993; Hummel 2000), the piece that most explicitly addressed questions of identity in foreign policy was a lesser known chapter by David Campbell, published in the original edition of his widely read Writing Security but replaced in the revised 1998 edition. In it, Campbell addresses what he calls the ‘politics of identity’ by examining ‘the discourse of danger surrounding Japan’ in the 1990s, through a focus on ‘what the problematization of Japan as a national security threat says about the United States’. To this end, he sought to reconceptualize foreign policy in terms of meaning and identity or to shed light on the ‘discursive economy of identity/difference to the formulation and interpretation of US foreign policy’ (Campbell 1994, 148). Campbell 12  According to a 1992 CRS report: ‘Negotiations are held under an atmosphere of coercion, and when an agreement is finally reached, both sides go away feeling exhausted and empty’ (Nanto 1992, 24). 13  The most prominent and extreme articulation of this scenario was probably Friedman and Le Bard’s book, The Coming War with Japan, published in 1991 (cf. Morris 2010, 28). On parallels with later literature on China, such as Galen Carpenter’s America’s Coming War with China, see Morris (2010, 141). When the development of its military power did not take place as predicted, first and foremost by realist IR theory, Japan was attributed the status of an ‘abnormal state’, a ‘trading state’, a ‘civilian power’ and a ‘reactive’ or ‘defensive’ state (Gustafsson and Hagström 2015, 3). 14  For criticisms of Huntington’s take on Japan, see Kataoka (1995), who also ‘credits’ Huntington with having linked the trade-related revisionist discourse to geopolitics.

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highlights the central arguments pertaining to a ‘Japanese threat’—that the bilateral trade deficit is a result of unfair practices and closed Japanese markets, and that Japanese investments in the USA amount to a ‘buyout’ while not allowing US investment in Japan, leading to the revisionist argument that Japan is ‘different’ (1994, 151ff.). He treats these arguments not as descriptions of an inherent and unproblematic ‘reality of the situation’, but rather as driven by ‘the entailments of [US] identity’ (1994, 157). More generally, he argues that the major political challenge resides not in addressing the specifics of the ‘single case’ of Japan as a threat, but in addressing ‘the process whereby the subjectivity of the United States is continually in hock to strategies of otherness’ (1994, 166). The broader theoretical implications of this argument are addressed in Sect. 3.3. In a more extensive study, Morris focuses on what she calls the practice of ‘Japan-bashing’ and its connection to historical images of Japan within specific discourses (identified in her study of the USA and Australia) in the West in the 1980s and 1990s, including the revisionist discourse. Referring to Campbell’s chapter, she points out that ‘contemporary anti-Japanese views were often shaped far more by Western thinking about the world than by developments in contemporary Japan itself’ and in the USA by an attempt to preserve ‘the Self’ as ‘universal’. She diagnoses a decline in Japan-bashing by the mid-1990s linked to Japan’s economic problems but also to the shift in focus to China (Morris 2010, 137f.). Miyoshi in turn identifies ‘bashing’ in the USA and Japan ‘as a form of cultural criticism’ that attempts ‘to link specific trade and industrial policy and development directly with cultural imaginaries’ and to ‘cross over, if not clear away, the boundaries that apparently lie between the economical and the cultural in many critics’ minds’ (Miyoshi 1991, 62). He argues that trade negotiations should be inscribed with a historical understanding of societal differences and how they came about (1991, 80). For instance, free trade and open markets are connected with Enlightenment notions of universal citizenship, civil society ‘and the modernist ideology of democracy’ even though in practice trade in ‘the West’ has never been totally ‘fair and open’ (1991, 94), which connects to the questions about the role of identity in economic discourses discussed in this book (see Sects. 2.3 and 2.4). What characterizes this scholarship is that it takes a step back from the issue area itself to focus on how ‘the Japan problem’ is discursively constructed in the first place and on characteristics and implications. In the field of US-Chinese economic relations, however, this goes as unnoticed

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as the whole ‘rise of Japan’ debate. While scholars in the broader field of US-Chinese relations address the role of identity (Blanchard 2012; Pan 2012; Turner 2013; Hayes 2013), they also fail to consider the earlier case of Japan. However, their standpoints connect to broader debates on ‘ideas’ as ‘non-material factors’ in US-Chinese relations, IR and IPE.

2.2   Ideas and Discourses in IR and IPE Outside the topic of economic relations, a growing body of literature addresses what are mostly called ‘non-material factors’ in US-Chinese relations, such as ideas, mutual perceptions and images, attitudes, beliefs, identities and public opinion (e.g. Fewsmith and Rosen 2001; P. H. Gries 2006; Johnston 2006; Lampton 2001; Wang 2000). The focus—especially when it comes to studying economic policy—is mostly on what are called ideas or ‘ideational aspects’, such as discourse and identity (Rousseau 2006, 3, 4; cf. also Schmidt 2008, 306; cf. Turner 2013, 3; 2014). With few exceptions, a central characteristic of this literature is its commitment to the ideational/material divide, in which discourses, identities or ideas are located in the ideational realm, leading to questions about whether or how they impact the material (cf. also Howarth 2013, 254) and how they should be studied, while also connecting to the numerous debates on the ideational turn (De Goede 2003; cf. Gofas and Hay 2010; Goldstein and Keohane 1993; Hall 1989; Jackson 2011; Jacobsen 1995, 2003; Laffey and Weldes 1997; Owen 2010; Schmidt 2008).15 Briefly put, mainstream constructivist research focuses on the ‘impact of ideas’ in terms of ‘variables’, whereas ‘radical’ or ‘post-positivist’ constructivists study ideas in terms of language and discourses (Hülsse 2003, 214, 225). De Goede summarizes the ‘three models of “ideas” in IPE’ as the epistemic community approach, the work by Susan Strange on knowledge structures and approaches based on Robert Cox’s reading of Gramsci. None of these approaches goes beyond the conceptual separation between a material and an ideational sphere, as poststructuralist work does by emphasizing that neither the politics/economics nor the idealism/realism distinction exists beyond its historical articulation (De Goede 2003, 86–91, 2006, 5; cf. also Hansen 2006, 10, on ‘causal epistemology’ as discourse; Howarth 2013, 62, 254). This divide persists among the mainstream approaches to 15  For an overview and critique of ‘ideational analysis’ in political science, see Finlayson (2004, 533ff.).

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explaining US foreign economic policy, regardless of whether they are ‘system-centered, society-centered or state-centered’ (cf. Ikenberry et al. 1988). In most cases, this means that ideas are ultimately understood as ‘epiphenomenal factors that either reinforce or compete with an actor’s material interests as alternative motivations for their behavior’ (Broome 2013, 193; Finlayson 2004, 530f.; Howarth 2013, 255; see also Turner 2014, 20, for an assessment of the literature on US-China relations). Although more recent in IPE than in IR, the debate runs largely along the same ‘dualist’ lines, over whether ideas should be accorded a causal role independent of ‘material factors’ (Gofas and Hay 2010, 5, 15f.; see also Yee 1996). In much of this literature, discourses are treated in the same way as ideas. In the broader field of theoretical and analytical discourse studies, however, there are quite distinct positions and arguments on and about the concepts, such as whether it is possible to speak of ‘the discursive’ versus the ‘non-discursive’ or whether discourse is ‘only language and text’. These debates have only reached the field of IR to a limited extent (Campbell 1998, 6; cf. Dalby 1988; Epstein 2010b; George 1994; Hansen 2006; Milliken 1999; Weldes and Saco 1996) and the same can be said of IPE (cf. Abdelal et al. 2010, 16 ff. Epstein 2010a, 176, 182 ff. De Goede 2006, 8f. Maxwell 2001, 3). The mainstream take on discourses locates them in the realm of ideas, and the term is usually understood as referring to ‘text and talking’ as distinct from ‘action’ or ‘practice’ (e.g. Adler and Pouliot 2011) and ‘facts on the ground’. Viviane Schmidt’s ‘discursive institutionalism’, for example, claims to differentiate between approaches that ‘focus exclusively on ideas [and] tend to leave the interactive processes of discourse implicit’, and ‘those scholars who speak of discourse [and] address explicitly the representation of ideas (how agents say what they are thinking of doing) and the discursive interactions through which actors generate and communicate ideas (to whom they say it) within given institutional contexts (where and when they say it)’ (Schmidt 2008, 306 emphasis added). Schmidt maintains a separation between discourse as speech (as well as between ‘ideas’/thinking and ‘discourse’/talking) and discourse as ‘action’, while attempting to ‘strip discourse of its postmodernist baggage’ by applying the term ‘not only to structure […] but also to agency […]’

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(Schmidt 2008, 305).16 Discourse scholars have widely argued against the dichotomization of language versus action/actor and discourse versus ‘reality’, as well as the understanding of discourse as ‘only language’ (Campbell 1998, 6f., 193; Dalby 1988, 416f.; George 1994, 29ff.; Tuathail and Agnew 1992, 193; cf. Weldes and Saco 1996, 374f.) or of language as merely referential, ‘transparent’ or instrumental (Blanchard 2012; cf. Doty 1993, 301f.; Howarth 2013, 241). For example, Epstein identifies ‘the discourses spoken by actors’ as ‘actor behavior’, as that it is through discourse that actors ‘make their own identity’ in terms of a ‘speaking subject’: ‘[t]o say is also “to do”’ (Epstein 2010a, 184, 189f.). In Doty’s words, ‘how we “know” what a practice is and the kind of subject engaging in it is through language’ (Doty 1993, 312). At the same time, ‘[d]iscourses do not present themselves as such; what we observe are people and verbal productions’ (Tuathail and Agnew 1992, 193 quoting Alker and Sylvan). Thus, in contrast to the common understanding, which is close to Schmidt’s, ‘we have to overcome the disabling view of discourse as transparent communication between subjects about things, a view within which the value of the statements of a discourse is wholly absorbed in a statement’s truth value’ (Shapiro 1989, 17). Discourse theorists do not aim to find ‘hidden truths’, but instead focus on what is claimed to be true in a particular discourse (Abdelal et  al. 2010, 13f.; cf. De Goede 2006, 4) and therefore on what a discourse does, not what it reveals (cf. Doty 1993, 304). This is linked to an understanding of discourse and language as productive regardless of ‘the motivations, perceptions, intentions, or understandings of social actors’ (Doty 1993, 302; cf. also Krebs and Jackson 2007). This understanding tackles the ‘how ideas matter’ question without having to worry about ‘getting into actors’ heads to discover ideas’ (Epstein 2010a, 182, 183).17 In line with the above, in this book American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history are understood as (identity) discourses that enable and constrain the articulation of foreign economic policy.

16  On the agency/structure question from a poststructuralist perspective, see, for example, Ashley (1989, 272f., 309), Herschinger (2011, 41–46) and Howarth (2013, Chaps. 4 and 5). 17  See also Weldes and Saco for their criticism of the study of ‘belief-systems’ (1996, 371f.).

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2.3   American Exceptionalism, the Liberal Theory of History and US-Japan and US-China Policies18 In the literature, American exceptionalism is commonly traced back to the colonial period and refers historically to the puritan settler John Winthrop’s pronunciation of a ‘city upon a hill’ in 1630, as well as to the American revolution and the Declaration of Independence in 1776, with its commitment to ‘freedom, morality and the betterment of humankind’ in exceptional distinction from Europe at that time. Alexis de Tocqueville is typically agreed to be the first author to use the term in Democracy in America.19 American exceptionalism is not a ‘unified body of thought’ (Nayak and Malone 2009, 260). Two main strands are commonly identified: first, the exemplary strand that goes back to the city on a hill, became widespread following the founding of the republic and was further enhanced by Enlightenment ideals (Patman and Southgate 2016, 223); and second, the missionary strand related to the belief in a ‘manifest destiny’, which became more influential after the 1840s and westward expansion (McEvoy-­ Levy 2001, 24; Monten 2005, 129; Nayak and Malone 2009, 266; Wheeler 2003, 206). McCrisken (2003, 8) identifies three main elements in both strands of American exceptionalism: (a) that the USA as a special nation has a special destiny; (b) that it is different from the rest of the world; and (c) that in contrast to other great nations, the USA will not rise and fall.20 Onuf, in turn, distinguishes between ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ exceptionalism. The former envisages ‘the end of history’ in terms of ‘the ultimate Americanization of the world’, whereas the latter insists that the USA will always be different from and superior to all others (Onuf 2012, 81). In general, US exceptionalism is classified as part of US identity and deeply embedded in elite and popular circles (McCrisken 2003, 2, 4, 17; Patman 2006, 965), to the extent that ‘American identity is most usefully defined as American exceptionalism because the belief in [it] has been a powerful, persistent, and popular myth throughout American history, and  Parts of this section build on Nymalm and Plagemann (2019) and Nymalm (2013).  For a critique of the common historical reading of US exceptionalism as a ‘product of US identity’, rather than material power, see Hughes (2015). 20  Nayak and Malone (2009) differentiate between American Orientalism, directed towards non-Western countries, and American exceptionalism, directed towards Western—particularly European—countries. 18 19

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furthermore, it has been used in formulating arguments for ever more internationalist and expanding foreign policies’ (Restad 2012, 55).21 Hence, exceptionalism cannot be dismissed as ‘mere rhetoric’ or as just a ‘manipulative tool employed by policy makers’ (Widmaier 2007, 782, 785; see also Holsti 2010, 382f.; Hunt 1987, 15). Instead, ‘exceptionalist beliefs have framed the discourse of foreign policy making by providing the underlying assumptions and terms of reference for foreign policy debate and conduct’ (McCrisken 2003, 6, 17f.; see also Khong 2013, 41). Both strands converge in the view that US political values are universal in nature (McCrisken 2003, 5, 8). Nonetheless, they also exhibit a tension between universality and particularity that plays a central role when relating to ‘the Other’ (see Sects. 2.4 and 3.2). Advocates of the exemplary strand maintain that the USA must lead by example by maintaining peaceful diplomatic and trading relations but staying out of other countries’ affairs. Proponents of the missionary strand, by contrast, contend that the USA must actively assist others to become like them (McCrisken 2003, 11). Accordingly, the ‘liberation’ of other peoples and societies as part of a global ‘struggle for freedom’ has been a persistent goal of US policymakers since the time of the founding fathers. Historical examples include the wars against Mexico and Spain, as well as the forced ‘opening’ of Japan and China in the mid-nineteenth century (Holsti 2010, 382, 385). The most cited examples of a clash between these two strands are President Woodrow Wilson’s proposal for the League of Nations in 1919, its ultimate rejection by the US Senate and the continuation of the debate between ‘isolationists’ and ‘internationalists’ in the inter-war years (McCrisken 2003, 15).22 President Wilson is also credited as the ‘father’ of the ‘liberal theory of history’—the triad of peace, democracy and free markets held together by the idea that economic policy can lead to political liberalization.23 What Wilson expressed in his ‘14 points’ speech to Congress in January 1918— that free trade along with disarmament and democracy are pillars of a peaceful world—later became a major line of US foreign economic policy 21  On American exceptionalism as an ‘informal ideology’, see Patman (2006, 946). Monten (2005, 116) sees ‘liberal exceptionalism’ as a doctrine. 22  Historians criticize the common understanding among political scientists that US foreign policy has been isolationist as inadequate and Euro-centric, as it does not take US policies on its own continent and in the southern hemisphere into account. See Restad (2012) and Hughes (2015, 541). 23  For the wider historical roots of ‘liberal internationalism’, see Jahn (2013).

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that was firmly rooted at the end of World War II and throughout the Cold War (Bachman 2000, 197; Dunne et al. 2013, 3, 23; cf. also Jahn 2013, 20; cf. Latham 1997, 34, 43; Mandelbaum 2002, 6, Chaps. 1 and 2; cf. Scherrer 1999, 153).24 At the end of the Cold War, the USA was widely seen as the ‘owner and operator’ of the ‘liberal capitalist political system’ (cf. Ikenberry 2013, 23, 24).25 Rooted in the 1960s response to Keynesian theories, the concepts of ‘monetarism’ and ‘the invisible hand’ of the free market established themselves in the 1970s as the basis for a political-economic philosophy based on a ‘market society’ and the necessary interconnectedness of economic and political freedoms: ‘On the one hand, freedom in economic arrangements is itself a component of freedom broadly understood, so economic freedom is an end in itself. In the second place, economic freedom is also an indispensable means toward the achievement of political freedom’ (Friedman 2002, 8).26 Capitalism came to be seen as the only type of social organization that respects individual liberty and as the only economic system capable of coordinating the activities of a great number of people without recourse to coercion (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 172; see also Khong 2013, 34). Following the demise of the Soviet Union, and in the post-Cold War period when the Japanese economy was declining and China was not yet ‘rising’, the liberal theory of history appeared to be an accurate depiction (cf. Patman 2006, 966f.). It acquired what most scholars call hegemonic status, in the sense of either not being questioned or being permanently referred to in opposition to it. It also provided the most widely adopted set of political and economic principles and was practised by the most influential countries worldwide. The related ‘economic transition paradigm’ also built on the direct connection between liberal economic principles, democratization and peaceful international relations: the spread of liberal market economies leads to economic growth and rising incomes, giving rise to liberal individuals who 24  The idea that ‘free trade’ leads to peaceful relations was shared by Cordell Hull, Secretary of State during the Roosevelt presidency and architect of the 1934 Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act (RTAA), which ended the protectionist measures of the 1930 SmootHawley Act (cf. Kolkmann 2005, 37). 25  For a critique of Wilson’s view of the history and founding of the USA as a process of liberal assimilation projected on the world order envisaged after World War I, see Ambrosius (2015). 26  Friedman conceded that capitalism was a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for political freedom, as the examples of fascism in Italy, Spain, Germany and Japan showed (ibid., 10).

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then demand the right to political participation (cf. Jahn 2013, 109). Thus, the expansion of the liberal world order was considered a necessary and inevitable process (cf. i.e. Ikenberry 2010; see also Mandelbaum 2002, 26, 326). This conviction was represented most prominently by Fukuyama’s notion of ‘the end of history’, by which he meant the end of ideological struggles following the collapse of the main communist opponent, leading to ‘an unabashed victory of economic and political liberalism’ (Fukuyama 1989, 3; Browning and Lehti 2010; Dunne et al. 2013, 1; see also Hobson 2008, 87; Jahn 2013, 1; Marchart 1998, 14; McEvoy-­ Levy 2001, 41–43; Wight 2013, 327). Even in 2009, scholars such as Ikenberry were still stating that ‘the leading states of the world system are travelling along a common pathway to modernity’ (cited in Dunne et al. 2013, 18).27 President George W. Bush in his speech at West Point on 1 June 2002 stated: ‘The twentieth century ended with a single surviving model of human progress […]’ (cited in Nabers 2015, 163). From this standpoint, the USA sees itself as the guarantor of ‘global public goods’ (Parchami 2009, 182; Scherrer 1999, 155) and as having a special responsibility to nurture and promote the ‘core values of the pursuit of democratic institutions, the expansion of free markets, the peaceful settlement of conflict, and the promotion of collective security […] for the sake of both its interests and its ideals’ (Lampton 2001, 249, emphasis added, citing Anthony Lake, National Security Advisor in 1994). The promotion of free trade as a first step to political liberalization quickly became an objective of US policy vis-à-vis not only Russia, but also China (Mandelbaum 2002, 267; see also McDonald 2009, 301; Uriu 2009, 12). With respect to China’s trade relations with the USA, in 1999, two years before China’s accession to the WTO, Bush argued, ‘Economic freedom creates habits of liberty. And habits of liberty create expectations of democracy… Trade freely with China, and time is on our side’ (cited in Rachman 2011). The liberal theory of history was especially prominent in the debates—and the campaign organized by the White House under President Clinton—over granting China Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) prior to its accession to the WTO. Clinton’s central argument, in addition to considering the benefits to the US economy, was that opening up China’s markets would undermine the control of the communist party (Hormats and Economy 2001, 8; Kolkmann 2005, 164, 177, 189; New York Times 27  For a ‘reply’ to Fukuyama relating to the rise of Japan, see Chalmers Johnson’s paper History Restarted (Johnson 1992), as well as Huntington (1993).

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2000; Sanger 2000). During Bush’s presidential campaign, Condoleezza Rice, his foreign policy adviser, echoed this thought: ‘But trade in general can open up the Chinese economy and, ultimately, its politics too. This requires faith in the power of markets and economic freedom to drive political change, but it is a faith confirmed by experiences around the globe’ (Rice 2000). President Barack Obama continued the tradition of the USA as a ‘liberal hegemon’ seeking to engage China while also aiming to check its growing (material) power (Rigger 2014, 150; Rudolf 2016; Rose 2015). However, with the advent of the presidency of Donald J. Trump, these lines of thinking have been openly critiqued and declared outdated by the administration in several official documents and speeches. Japan in turn was seen as having been liberated from its ‘feudal and militaristic past’ by the ‘West’ through the Allied Occupation after World War II, and its membership of GATT in 1955 was seen as marking Japan’s ‘rejoining of the international community’. Japan was perceived as successful precisely because of its ‘Westernization’ (Morris 2010, 20f.; Miyoshi 1991, 67) and thereby as becoming ‘more like us’. However, when trade frictions emerged linked to Japan’s allegedly unfair behaviour, the discourse on Japan reverted to emphasizing its ‘difference’ and questioned its ‘integration’. As a precursor to the later debates on China, the question became whether staying on the course of ‘free trade’ could ultimately change Japan, or whether that route had already come to a dead end. Gilpin, for example, wrote that ‘the uniqueness of Japan increases the difficulties of integrating that dynamic and important nation into the larger world economy’ (Gilpin 2003, 300, 306–308).

2.4   ‘Liberal’ Identity, the ‘Other’ and US-Japan and US-China Policies A central question for this book flows from the literature on the role of American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history/liberalism in its broader sense in US economic policies: What does the ‘liberal lens’ necessarily or potentially mean for US policy on Japan and China in terms of Self/Other relations? Critical scholars have described the US perspective as placing ‘other nations on a common evolutionary slope and [seeing] them as inevitably travelling toward the end of history that is the United States’ (Pan 2004,

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312; cf. also Onuf’s ‘liberal exceptionalism’ Onuf 2012, 82).28 US leadership, or ‘hegemonic liberalism’ (Krause 2008, 80ff.), is essential for this, and here the liberal theory of history and American exceptionalism come together. Liberty stands for the rationale connecting the ideas of the city on the hill and national greatness, leading to its pursuit at home and abroad (Khong 2013, 16f.). As the ensuing mission ‘to liberate others’ is based on ‘the twin pillars of political and economic freedom’ as the foundation of ‘the American Way of life’ (Holsti 2010, 399), economic expansion, or the world’s openness to the ‘US system’ and to its goods, becomes intertwined with ‘the security of America’s core values’. As such, ‘ideological or economic closure abroad’ is taken to constitute a threat to liberalism ‘at home’ (cf. Khong 2013, 34; Layne 2007, 33, 119; see also Tuathail and Agnew 1992, 196). According to Layne, ‘the inclination to universalize liberal democracy puts the United States on a collision course with others whose ideologies, institutions, and values differ from America’s, and it causes Washington to regard world politics as a Manichean struggle between good and evil, rather than as a contest between rival powers with conflicting national interests’ (Layne 2007, 122). Holsti argues that one characteristic of American exceptionalism is the need to have an external enemy (cf. also Huntington 1997; Khong 2013, 30). Others believe that Japan replaced the receding Soviet threat in the late 1980s, as the ‘dangerous other’ against which US exceptionalist identity was contrasted (cf. McEvoy-Levy 2001, 27, 35; see also Morris 2010, 27). Khong states that Japan was in turn replaced by China by the mid-1990s (Khong 2013, 31). According to Madsen (1995), the ‘liberal myth’ has shaped US views on and expectations of China in both ways, seeing it as either a threat or an ‘opportunity’ in terms of market access and ideological transformation (e.g. Dorogi 2001; Pan 2012; Turner 2014; Layne 2014) and related arguments were made about Japan in the 1980s (Thorsten 2012, 2). In a similar sense, the ‘liberal tradition’ has been characterized as unstable, because it allows for different variants and tensions: ‘An unstable American liberal tradition has been constitutive of […] shifting definitions of “the national interest|”, encompassing: (1) an exceptionalist isolationism […] (2) a pragmatic realism/internationalism […] and (3) an absolutist or crusading internationalism […]’ (Widmaier 2007, 780, 783; see also 28  For predictions on thresholds for when China would necessarily democratize as a consequence of economic liberalization, based on GDP growth rates, see, for example, Friedberg (2011, 50).

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McEvoy-­Levy 2001, 24).29 Hunt in turn maintains that it is the sense of ‘national superiority’ central to ‘US foreign policy ideology’ that gives rise to negative stereotypes about other people, which in turn raises the false expectation that it would be easy to change their political and economic course for the ‘better’, leading to frustration when change does not happen as was expected (Hunt 1987, 176; see also Dalby 1988, 436). As the analysis in this book shows, ‘false expectations’ have played a role in both the Japan case and the China case, not least since the Trump administration, and raises the question of whether American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history necessarily led to hostile or confrontational attitudes towards Japan and China, as tends to be assumed in the literature. This issue is in turn linked to the ability of liberalism to deal with dislocations30; and to what extent these are attributed to or believed to be initiated by an ‘outsider’ that can in turn be held accountable for them.31 Layne, for instance, maintains that ‘America’s crusader mentality springs directly from liberalism’s intolerance of competing ideologies and the concomitant belief that—merely by existing—nondemocratic states threaten America’s security and the safety of liberalism at home’ (Layne 2007, 121). Owen, on the other hand, claims that it is no specific characteristic of liberalism that people generally ‘strongly tend to favor a foreign state if it has their preferred system of government’, regardless of what that type of government is, and that they ‘identify their own (and their state’s) interests with the interests of like states, and against those of unlike states’. He attributes this to a general tendency towards ‘favouritism’, or for people to favour their own type of whatever it may be (Owen 1997, 22ff., 28). This means that the actions of countries considered ‘the same’, in this case liberal, are more likely to be interpreted as friendly than the

29  The ‘instability’ of liberalism linked to its historical evolution and internal contradictions is addressed, for example, by Jahn (2013), Flockhart (2013) and Rae and Reus-Smit (2013). 30  Scholars have argued that liberal thinking not only lacks a transformative logic, but also paradoxically sees crisis as a negative and avoidable condition but progress as a necessary and positive one (Flockhart 2013, 75; see also Levine and Barder 2014, 872). 31  In the wider literature on liberalism in its different guises—that is, as an explanatory theory, as an ontology, as an economic system and as a set of normative values (Friedman et al. 2010, 506f.; see also Jahn 2013, 36)—the question of the ‘intolerance’ of liberalism itself is raised, for example, by Hartz (1991), Hirschman (1982, 1478ff.), Doyle (1983a, 1983b), Owen (1997, 25, 37), Latham (1995), Prozorov (2006), Dunne (2010), Koivisto and Dunne (2010), Weber (2010) and Williams (2011).

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actions of a country considered ‘different’, in this case illiberal.32 Thus, ‘like any group, liberals see themselves in opposition to an “out-group”. They cannot escape the negative dynamic of identity formation’ (Owen 1997, 25f., 37). Whether this ‘dynamic’ is ‘intrinsic to liberalism’ and an ontological feature of identity more generally, or just an empirical possibility, and what role expectations of change in the Other play are crucial questions addressed in Sect. 3.3.33

32  If a liberal state must have at least freedom of opinion and expression, and regular competitive elections, then any state that lacks one or both of these characteristics should be considered illiberal (cf. Owen 1997, 49, 52). 33  On the ‘flexibility’ of liberalism, see also Stears (2012, 94) and Jahn (2013, 14).

CHAPTER 3

Political Discourse Theory and Rhetorical Analysis: Fundamental Premises and Key Terms

Political discourse theory (PDT) referred to as a ‘school’ has only relatively recently begun to make its way in the fields of International Relations (IR) and International Political Economy (IPE) (cf. Stengel and Nabers 2019, 249).1 That said, its central characteristics and premises have been present in IR since the 1980s, and in IPE, which has been ‘particularly resistant to poststructural intervention’, since the 1990s (cf. De Goede 2006, 1). In both fields, this has been mostly through the work of poststructuralist or post-positivist scholars.2 This chapter does not reproduce an account of the general debates on poststructuralism in IR and IPE.3 Instead, it focuses on the central premises of PDT and links these to the corresponding issues and arguments of scholars in these fields. What was described or ‘loosely constructed as [a] postmodern or poststructuralist approach’ to IR in the 1980s was an ‘organizing strategy…to deconstruct or denaturalize through detailed interpretation the inherited language, concepts, and texts that have occupied privileged discourses in 1  For an overview of discourse theory in the social sciences, see Torfing (2005). On poststructuralist discourse studies, see Herschinger and Renner (2014). 2  In turn, PDT has also only taken the respective approaches in IR and IPE into account to a limited extent. 3  See, for example, Campbell (1998, Epilogue, 2010), de Goede (2006), Edkins (1999), Hansen (2006, Introduction), Smith et  al. (1997), Sjolander (1994), George (1994), Caldwell (1982), Samuels (1996), Burke (2008), George and Campbell (1990), Herschinger (2011, 4–8).

© The Author(s) 2020 N. Nymalm, From ‘Japan Problem’ to ‘China Threat’?, Global Political Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44951-3_3

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international relations’ (Der Derian 1989, 4). What George and Campbell identified as four shared elements of a ‘broad agenda of dissent’ largely concur with the four main features of the ‘discourse’ concept developed by the Essex School (see Sect. 3.1). These were: (a) the inadequacy of positivist/empiricist approaches to knowledge and society; (b) a focus on the social and historical process of knowledge construction that takes account of power relations and rejects all foundationalism; (c) a focus on the language debate and the linguistic construction of reality; and (d) the extension of these issues to ‘the construction of meaning and identity in all its forms…’ (George and Campbell 1990, 270). The work of the political theorist Ernesto Laclau inhabits a central position in PDT and the Essex School of Discourse Theory. Starting with a problematization of the essentialism and determinism of Marxist theory in Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (HSS) (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, first edition 1985), proponents of PDT have since set out to emphasize the contingency and historicity of what is called ‘objectivity’ by fleshing out the role of politics and power in its formation, drawing primarily on the works of Foucault, Derrida, Lacan and Žižek (Glynos et al. 2009, 7). The focus is on inquiring into the reproduction and transformation of the orders and practices that stand for our articulations, representations or categorizations of the world, by problematizing or questioning their ‘taken for granted’ or hegemonic character.4 Laclau and Mouffe began by formulating a theory of hegemony that deconstructs the classical Marxist ontology, which reduces identity to a class essence (cf. HSS Chap. 1). They did this by engaging with and taking further Althusser’s (cf. HSS 97–105, 109) and Gramsci’s (cf. HSS 65–71, 136–145, 109, 134–145) works on Marxist conceptions of politics and ideology, and drawing on poststructuralist theories of language (cf. HSS 112–113; Howarth 2013, 123–127; cf. Howarth and Stavrakakis 2000, 5), and especially the work of Derrida and Lacan (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, xi). In their preface to the second edition of Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, Laclau and Mouffe speak of poststructuralism as their main source of theoretical reflection, 4  Laclau’s and Mouffe’s understanding of hegemony is different from the common understanding in political science of hegemony as domination: ‘From a poststructuralist point of view it is not possible – or at least it lacks sufficient complexity – to say that a certain person, class, or political group has become hegemonic. Rather, it is a certain element of common sense (Gramsci 1971, 419–425), a world-view, a societal relation, or more generally, a specific spatio-temporal discourse organization that is or becomes hegemonic [...]’ (Wullweber 2014, 9; cf. Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 142).

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while taking into account, among others, the late Wittgenstein and Heidegger, but also Popper, Kuhn and Feyerabend, as well as Gramsci (ibid.). In their writings, Laclau and Mouffe aimed not ‘only’ for a theory on discursive processes, regarding communication through language or other means, but also for a social and political theory. Their concept of discourse encompasses not just language but all social phenomena (Laclau 1990, 100) and seeks to elaborate an alternative approach to the understanding of the structuration of socio-political spaces: a theory of hegemony (HSS Chap. 3; Laclau 2000, x). Discourse theory is therefore: not just a simple theoretical or epistemological approach; it implies, by asserting the radical historicity of being and therefore the purely human nature of truth, the commitment to show the world for what it is: an entirely social construction of human beings which is not grounded on any metaphysical ‘necessity’ external to it – neither God, nor ‘essential forms’ nor the ‘necessary laws of history’. (Laclau 1990, 129)

Laclau and Mouffe were not preoccupied with how to apply their theories in research, but this becomes a major project of the Essex School (Howarth 2013, 15f.; see e.g. Torfing 2005). In its view, social theory should not exclude the pursuit of empirical research that is in turn theoretically and philosophically informed (Howarth 2013, 12, 266).5 In its methodological development, PDT6 has drawn on hermeneutical critiques of behaviouralism that oppose the separation of ‘meanings and interpretations’, on the one hand, and ‘objective political behaviour’, on the other. Instead, it stresses the connectedness between meaning, interpretation and practice. PDT sees itself as neither ‘an independent or free-­ standing approach to social and political theory’, nor detached from social and historical contexts. On the contrary, it is articulated in connection to the latter in order to ‘critically explain problematized objects of research’. PDT rejects rationalist approaches that presume entirely self-conscious actors with given interests and preferences, as well as positivist conceptions 5  For critiques of the traditional separation between ‘theory’ and ‘empirics’, see Ashley (1989, 278f.) and George and Campbell (1990, 280): ‘Whereas Critical Theory wants to realize in practical political terms what traditional theory only contemplates, poststructuralism assumes that such theory is already practice. To understand society and politics in this sense is to ground theory not in practice, but as practice.’ See also Zalewski (1997) on ‘theory as everyday practice’. 6  See especially the Logics of Critical Explanation (Glynos and Howarth, 2007).

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of knowledge and method in terms of a ‘unitary science’ bound to generalizations and predictions that assume an unproblematic ‘objective reality’ (Howarth and Stavrakakis 2000, 6–7).

3.1   Discourse as Ontological Horizon and Empirical Object of Research According to PDT the terms ‘discourse’ or ‘discursive structure’ refer to both the ontological and the ontical level. This means that discourse is both a constitutive structure of meaning in terms of an ontological horizon that we cannot get outside of, as well as the concrete practice of speaking and acting in terms of linguistic and non-linguistic elements. Laclau and Mouffe explicitly refer to Wittgenstein’s ‘language game’ as an example of what they call ‘discourse’ (Laclau 2005, 106; Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 108; cf. also Zerilli 2009, 90f.): A is building with building-stones: there are blocks, pillars, slabs and beams. B has to pass the stones, and that in the order in which A needs them. For this purpose they use a language consisting of the words ‘block’, ‘pillar’, ‘slab, ‘beam’. A calls them out; B brings the stone which he has learnt to bring at such and such call. […] I shall also call the whole, consisting of language and the actions into which it is woven, the ‘language-game’. (Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, Oxford 1983, p.  3, cited in Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 108, emphasis added)

They add: ‘It is evident, that the very material properties of objects are part of what Wittgenstein calls language game, which is an example of what we have called discourse. […]. The linguistic and non-linguistic elements are not merely juxtaposed, but constitute a differential and structured system of positions—that is a discourse’ (ibid., emphasis added). The broader concept of discourse according to PDT can be summarized by highlighting four central features (cf. Glynos et al. 2009, 8f). First, discourse as a meaningful practice that constructs and makes the social world intelligible through the attribution of meaning in what becomes ‘a shared way of apprehending the world’ (Dryzek 1997, 8; cf. Glynos et  al. 2009, 8). PDT presumes that all objects and actions are meaningful and that their meaning is conferred by historically specific systems of rules (Howarth and Stavrakakis 2000, 2ff.). There is no separation between discursive and non-discursive phenomena, as every object is

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constituted as an object of discourse (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 107), and has nothing to do with the question of whether there actually is a world ‘out there’ external to our mind.7 PDT does not deny the existence of objects external to thought, as this would presume an extreme form of idealism.8 It does, however, oppose the claim that these objects could constitute themselves as objects ‘outside’ of discourse (cf. Howarth 2013, 93).9 Although it has become one of the most cited passages of HSS (cf. Howarth and Stavrakakis 2000, 3), the misunderstanding of PDT and ‘external reality’ is so persistent (cf. Nonhoff 2011, 98) that it is worth quoting again: The fact that every object is constituted as an object of discourse has nothing to do with whether there is a world external to our thought, or with the realism/idealism opposition. An earthquake or the falling of a brick is an event that certainly exists, in the sense that it occurs here and now, independently of my will. But whether their specificity as objects is constructed in terms of ‘natural phenomena’ or ‘expressions of the wrath of God’ depends upon the structuring of a discursive field. What is denied is not that such objects exist externally to thought, but the rather different assertion that they could constitute themselves as objects outside any discursive condition of emergence. (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 108)

Usually not cited is the subsequent paragraph, which addresses the alleged idealism and ‘dualism’: At the root of the previous prejudice lies an assumption of the mental character of discourse. Against this, we will affirm the material character of every discursive structure. To argue the opposite is to accept the very classical dichotomy between an objective field constituted outside of any discursive 7  This is an important difference with Foucault, who—at least according to the reading of Laclau and Mouffe (ibid.) and, for example, Dreyfus and Rabinow (1983, 58f.)—distinguishes between the two. However, Foucault was apparently ambiguous on this, as he writes of ‘no prediscursive providence which disposes the world in our favor’ in Orders of Discourse (cited in Campbell 1998, 6, who links this passage to Laclau and Mouffe’s understanding of no separation). See also Methmann (2010, 354), Edkins (1999, 47ff.), Howarth (2013, 190). 8  For a refutation of the misreading of PDT as idealist and relativist, see Howarth (2013, 93; 1990, 103–133), Laclau and Bhaskar (1998, 9f.). 9  Whereas a fair number of scholars explicitly agree that there is no separation between ‘discursive’ and ‘non-discursive’ (cf. Campbell 1998, 6; Diez 2001, 19; Doty 1996, 5; Herschinger 2011, 13; Solomon 2009, 273), this remains a contested and sometimes confusing issue.

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intervention, and a discourse consisting of the pure expression of thought. This is, precisely, the dichotomy which several currents of contemporary thought have tried to break. (ibid.)

We always encounter objects as already meaningful and in context, not as ‘neutral’ and available to be inspected in theoretical or cognitive terms, and we ourselves cannot move outside of this context and act on it (cf. Glynos and Howarth 2008, 8). Objects and processes that we think about exist, ‘though our practices of reflection are never external to the lifeworlds into which we are thrown’. This perspective amounts to what Howarth calls a ‘minimal realism’, or a ‘philosophy of radical materialism, in which our conceptual and discursive forms can never exhaust the materiality of objects. Objects are thus constructed in different ways in different contexts […]’ (Howarth 2013, 10). Accordingly, there can be no unmediated access to a ‘real-concrete’ or to a ‘final’ or absolute truth, as decisions about truth and falsity are settled within orders of discourse according to the criteria established by those orders themselves (Howarth 2000, 133, cf. 2005, 322, 328). This follows Heidegger’s critique of classical epistemology that conceives of the subject as always already within a world of meaningful objects and practices—what Laclau and Mouffe call ‘the discursive’ (Heidegger 1993, 142ff. §§31, 32; cf. Howarth 2005, 322; Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 107). Discourses as configurations of social relations and practices are always understood as involving the exercise of power, as they constitute and structure the social in one particular way and not in another, which brings with it the drawing of boundaries and exclusions (Howarth and Stavrakakis 2000, 4). The above understanding largely converges with the accounts of IR scholars, who understand discourse as generating the categories of meaning by which ‘reality’ is understood and explained, and thus not only as ‘a way of learning “about” something out there in the “real world”; it is rather a way of producing that something as real, as identifiable, classifiable, knowable, and therefore, meaningful. Discourse creates the conditions of knowing’ (Klein 1987, 4; cf. George 1994, 30; cf. also e.g. Shapiro 1989, 11).10 Accordingly, the idea of an ‘external reality’, or the ideal/ material distinction, is itself internal to discourse as there is no reality perceivable outside of techniques of truth, that is, outside discourse (Campbell 10  For an overview of the study of discourse in IR that still speaks to the most important issues see Milliken (1999).

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1998, 7; cf. De Goede 2003, 7, 91). In Laclau and Mouffe’s words on the language/non-language separation (see below): […] any distinction between what are usually called the linguistic and behavioural aspects of a social practice is either an incorrect distinction or ought to find its place as a differentiation within the social production of meaning, which is structured under the form of discursive totalities. (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 107, emphasis added)

Second, discourse as an ontological horizon, implying the understanding of any objectivity and social relations as relational configurations of elements, which comprise agents/subjects, and words and actions that are rendered intelligible in the context of a particular practice, so that each element acquires meaning only in relation—and in differentiation—to other elements (Glynos et al. 2009, 8). This goes back to the structural linguistics of de Saussure, and the understanding of language as a differential system of signifiers without positive terms, where the meaning of each sign depends on its difference to other signs (cf. Jørgensen and Phillips 2002, 9f.; Laclau 2007, 37). De Saussure distinguished between langue (the linguistic rules necessary for meaningful communication to be possible) and parole (individual acts of speaking), on the one hand, as well as between signifiers (sound-images, such as the sound d-o-g) and signifieds (the concept ‘dog’), on the other. Signifier and signified together constitute the basic unit of language—the linguistic sign. Importantly, according to this theory, no natural relationship exists between the signified and the signifier (the sound d-o-g and the concept of a ‘dog’). The relationship is dependent on the functions and conventions of the language used. The signifier d-o-g derives its meaning not from its reference to the signified ‘dog’, but from its difference to ‘cat’ and other related terms. This is an entirely relational and differential understanding of language: ‘Saussure’s purely formal and relational theory of language claims that the identity of any element is a product of the differences and oppositions established by the underlying structures of the linguistic system’ (Howarth 2013, 25–27). Departing from the Saussurean understanding of these systems as fixed or closed (cf. Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 106, 113)—and building on Derrida’s critique of de Saussure in particular (Edkins 1999, 21ff.; cf. George and Campbell 1990, 284; Gregory 1989, xv)—PDT stresses the incompleteness of every system of signification and the impossibility of fixing a particular meaning once and forever (Stäheli 2000a, 35;

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see also Waever 1997, 171). In Laclau’s words: ‘The unfixity of the relationship between words and images is the very precondition of any discursive operation which is politically meaningful’ (Laclau 2005, 24–25). Derrida argued that it was not possible to fully capture the essential character of language (or any system) in its entirety understood as a closed and complete system. According to this critique, De Saussure’s shortcoming was to focus on language as a product and not as a process, which also led him to first rigidly separate signifier and signified and then connect them through a one-to-one correspondence. This would imply that signifiers and signifieds can exist independently of each other, but in practice this is not the case: ‘The distinction between “bat” and “cat” is not just the result of the difference between the letters “b” and “c”; it is also determined by what these words mean’ (Howarth 2013, 39–40). De Saussure’s concept ultimately amounts to a dualism between the ‘substantial’ and the ‘conceptual’, or the ‘material’ and the ‘ideational’, and an understanding of signs/language as vehicles for ideas or human consciousness, which is also common in the ‘ideas’ literature in IR and IPE. ‘Ideas’ in this understanding would thus pre-exist language and lie and remain ‘outside’ of the dynamics of linguistic structure and its development and hence outside of ‘discourse’ (cf. Howarth 2013, 42). Derrida’s concept of différance accounts for the active production of language and discourse. In brief, it means that although things and words are co-constituted, their co-­ constitution is itself never complete, as words can never completely exhaust the meaning(s) of things. This is the case because things are always related to other things by differing from them and thus carry their ‘traces’. While meaning is produced, there will always be alternative possibilities visible but deferred in these traces (cf. Howarth 2013, 51–53).11 This understanding was also taken up by IR-poststructuralists, who engaged in deconstruction. In short, a deconstructive approach seeks to problematize binaries or dualist understandings (i.e. body vs. mind, material vs. ideational, truth vs. fiction), as well as their hierarchical positioning. It does not question the relational character of meaning itself, but emphasizes the processual character of meaning as dynamic, historically bound and context dependent (Ashley 1989, 319 FN 58; cf. Gregory 1989, xvf.). This takes place, for instance, by looking at a text on its own terms, noting binaries and hierarchies and highlighting their premises in order to situate them in the context from which they are derived. In Derrida’s words, ‘the  For a more detailed account, see Howarth (2013, 28–55).

11

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task is […] to dismantle [déconstruire] the metaphysical and rhetorical structures which are at work in [the text], not in order to reject or discard them but to reinscribe them in another way’ (cited in Nabers 2015, 91).12 Third, the centrality of meaning and language and the understanding of discourse as a system of differences do not reduce everything to either language or text but imply that the relational and differential character of language applies to all signifying or meaning systems (Glynos et al. 2009, 8). Discourse ‘is not restricted to speech and writing but embraces all systems of signification. It is, in that sense, coterminous with social life’ (Laclau 2006, 106; 2014, 145). Laclau has repeatedly argued against separating ‘language’ and ‘action’, as this ‘evokes only too clearly an old differentiation between ideas in people’s heads and actions in which they participate. Since Wittgenstein, we know that language games comprise both linguistic exchanges and actions in which they are embedded […]’ (Laclau 2005, 13).13 PDT conceives of the social as structured through difference and analogous to language (Stäheli 2000a, 8; cf. Gregory 1989, xxi). The social world is read ‘as text’ in the sense of focusing on the central concepts in (Western) philosophical discourse such as ‘meaning’ and ‘knowing’ and their implications for theory and practice (George 1994, 191). Importantly, language is considered a socially and collectively shared system of rules and conventions, not ‘private property’ (cf. Herschinger 2011, 13). Accordingly, the emphasis on language is not a retreat into subjectivism or idealism: ‘The world exists independently of language, but we can never know that (beyond the fact of its assertion), because the existence of the world is literally inconceivable outside of language and our traditions of interpretation’ (Campbell 1998, 6). Meanwhile, as meaning and sense making happens not only but primarily through language, a focus on language lies at the heart of the poststructuralist understanding of discourse (cf. i.e. Nonhoff 2011, 96; 12  ‘To deconstruct a discourse is to show how it undermines the philosophy it asserts, or the hierarchical oppositions on which it relies, by identifying in the text the rhetorical operations that produce the supposed ground of argument, the key concept or premise’ (Culler 1994, 86). 13  In IR it is common to separate discourse and practice (Adler and Pouliot 2011, 7; Neumann 2002, e.g. 2012, 62, 176), hence the so-called practice turn. While Adler and Pouliot (2011, 3–4) credit poststructuralists for drawing attention to ‘textual practices’, they maintain that the ‘return of practice to the linguistic turn’ came later. However, the scholars they cite (Der Derian, Shapiro, Doty) never excluded practice when speaking of discourse, but understood discourse precisely as practice.

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Herschinger and Renner 2014, 14). Importantly, language is not treated as transparent or merely referential. Instead, both the linguistic practices constitutive of different fields, such as the political or the economic, as well as ‘the language of inquiry itself’ (ibid.) are accounted for. In the poststructuralist understanding of discourse ‘theory is as much the object of analysis as the tool for analysis’ (George and Campbell 1990, 285; cf. also George 1994, Chap. 1, and 155 ff.). Last but not least, and related again to PDT as an ontological horizon, all systems of meaning are understood as structurally incomplete or undecidable in terms of a fundamental lack or radical contingency (Glynos et al. 2009, 8; Glynos and Howarth 2008, 6). Discourses as structures of ‘the social’ are never closed entities but are constantly being transformed through contact with other discourses. On an ontological level they are always already dislocated, which manifests itself at the ontical level through events experienced as ‘crises’. Every discourse as a system of differences strives for closure in the form of drawing its boundaries and fixing meanings. With pure difference—if the differences did not constitute a system, a system itself being conceivable only by differentiation from what it excludes—no meaning at all would be possible in the sense of signification (cf. Laclau 2007, 37). In other words, it is not possible to establish a position without differentiating it from a ‘context’, and this process of differentiation in turn establishes the context itself (Laclau 2007, 27; cf. Hetzel 2004, 199). In addition, as ‘any structure or system of differences is defined by reference to something that is actively excluded from that system, thus establishing the limits of a particular structure’, the excluded is always present within the system itself, which in turn accounts for the impossibility of a completely closed or sutured system (cf. Howarth 2013, 270).14 From this ‘essential instability’ follows the political character of social objectivity (cf. Glynos and Howarth 2008, 7), ‘political’ understood as non-essential or non-foundational, and as taking a decision in an ‘undecidable’ terrain (cf. Glynos and Howarth 2007, 114; cf. Marchart 2007). Asserting the contingency of all knowledge, identities and social relations, opposes any foundationalist premise—for instance, that they could be grounded on a fixed meta-theoretical base that transcends human actions—as well as any essentialism that ascribes given characteristics or essences to all beings (Jørgensen and Phillips 2002, 5f.). This understanding of no ultimate groundings or foundations, and thus their historical  See above on Derrida’s différance and the traces.

14

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and contingent character, continues to be a central concern of (IR-)poststructuralists, in their emphasis on not wanting to establish poststructuralism as a ‘new paradigm’ while refuting claims that this leads to a situation in which ‘anything goes’: This does not mean that at any time everything that is logically possible becomes, automatically, an actual political possibility. There are inchoated possibilities which are going to be blocked, not because of any logical restriction, but as a result of the historical contexts in which the representative institutions operate. (Laclau 1997, 50)

Knowledge, identities and social relations can and do become fixed or institutionalized all the time, but this fixation can never be totally beyond (political) contestation (cf. Solomon 2009, 274). For the early IR-poststructuralists, the main issue for analysis was taking the question of ‘historicity’ seriously (Ashley 1989, 261f.) in the sense of opposing any presupposition of ‘an unexamined metaphysical faith in its [modern discourse’s] capacity to speak a sovereign voice of suprahistorical truth’ (ibid., 264) and thus of ultimate foundations for knowledge and ensuing claims about the course of things through ‘the sovereignty of “reasoning man”’. This critique is not meant to be ‘anti-modern’ in terms of being directed against ‘man’ and ‘reason’ (ibid., 289) or against other Enlightenment notions (cf. George 1994, 140, 156), but ascribes historicity or discursivity to what are seemingly unproblematically called modernity and its achievements.15 More generally speaking, the postmodernist contribution to IR emphasizes the ‘historical, cultural, and linguistic practices in which subjects and objects (and theory and practice, facts and values) are constructed’ (George 1994, 192). What Ashley calls the ‘paradox of poststructuralism’ is basically the eschewing of any foundationalism as a consequence of taking historicity seriously. This means, for instance, not taking a position in terms of choosing ‘structure’ over ‘agency’, but instead respecting this undecidable opposition as ‘an inescapable feature of the ways in which one may think about history’ (1989, 273f.).16 According to Howarth, ‘the problem of 15  On the discursive construction of ‘Man’, see Laclau and Mouffe (2001, 116–117) and Howarth (2013, 61). 16  But see also George’s (1994, 165, 175) criticism of Ashley in this context. Connolly also criticizes Ashley for what he terms ‘a recipe for theoretical postponism’ and argues not in favour of eschewing or negating the grounding of theoretical approaches, but for problema-

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structure and agency does not admit of theoretical resolution at all, because it is an issue that resides in social relations themselves’ (Howarth 2013, 149, 151, 161, 182, 270).17 This is also why Laclau understands social relations as always contingent and as power relations. For the understanding of identity, this means that ‘the construction of a social identity is an act of power and that identity as such is power’ (Laclau 1990, 31). Hence, poststructuralism cannot and does not intend to serve as an alternative ‘ground’ in the foundational sense, as it claims to be aware of its own historicity and contingency. Again, against numerous assertions to the contrary, this is not meant to lead to ‘anything goes’, as poststructuralists understand every practice—be it theoretical or ‘historical’—as political in the sense of participating ‘in the inscription of a sovereign voice and the narrative structuring of history’ (Ashley 1989, 280). In other words, this means taking a certain position or decision while always being aware of its contingent foundations, or what Laclau and the Essex School have called taking a decision in an undecidable terrain. Accordingly, Laclau and Mouffe emphasize that in contrast to anti-foundationalism, post-­ foundationalism does not mean the absence of a ground, but the realization of its presence as an absent ground (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, x, xii, xiii, xiv).18

3.2   Identity as Discourse: Neither Stable Nor ‘Anything Goes’19 What Laclau and Mouffe call discursive structure in their words ‘is not a merely “cognitive” or “contemplative” entity: it is an articulatory practice which constitutes and organizes social relations’ (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 96). From this understanding, identities as social relations are like discourses. Discourse is ‘the structured totality resulting from the articulatory practice’, while articulation is ‘any practice establishing a relation among elements such that their identity is modified as a result of the articulatory practice’. In this case, an element becomes a ‘moment’, or a tizing the grounding at the same time (Connolly 2002, 56), which could be read as ‘weak ontology’ in the sense of Stephen K. White (2000). See also Howarth (2013, 77f.). 17  Similarly, Laclau discusses the relationship between ‘the universal’ and ‘the particular’, which is not about privileging one or the other, but articulating the (philosophical and political) relationship between them (Laclau 2007, Chap. 2; cf. Zerilli 2009, 89). 18  On ‘weak ontology’, see White (2000). 19  This section draws partly on Nymalm (2013) and Nymalm (2019a).

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temporarily fixed position; temporary because ‘no discursive formation is a sutured totality and the transformation of the elements into moments is never complete’ (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 107).20 Elements are ‘floating signifiers’ (Laclau 2005, 131–133; Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 113) that may become ‘nodal points’ when turned into moments. Nodal points are understood as partial fixations of meaning to which the differential positions relate (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 112). Hence, the practice of articulation, therefore, consists in the construction of nodal points which partially fix meaning; and the partial character of this fixation proceeds from the openness of the social, a result, in its turn, of the constant overflowing of every discourse by the infinitude of the field of discursivity. (ibid., 113)

In other words, attributed meanings are and will always remain contested by other possibilities of articulation. Importantly, articulation is not to be understood as linguistic practice alone, but as any social practice, ‘[t]he social is articulation insofar as “society” is impossible’ (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 114), meaning that complete closure or saturation of the social as a fixed ‘society’ is never possible.21 The impossibility of final closure is due to the differential, and hence essentially unstable, character of any system of signification. Meaning can only be established as difference from that which it is not and from that which it excludes (see 3.1). Through this negating or excluding reference, the ‘what is not’ is always present in ‘what is’, so that ‘what is’ is always confronted with its own limits. The striving for closure is always present too. Against this background, according to PDT, identity is understood as a discursively articulated (not only but also through language), entirely social and relational phenomenon. In a strict sense ‘identity’ as such does not exist, but ‘happens’ through identification with ‘subject positions’ articulated in discourses, meaning that every identity is constituted within a relationship to others that is only temporarily fixable (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 111ff.). The subject positions can be understood as these temporal

20  Nonhoff (2007, 176) discusses what he sees as Laclau’s shift from ‘elements’ to ‘demands’. 21  ‘The notion of discourse, could, if you prefer, be replaced by that of practice’ (Laclau and Bhaskar 1998, 9).

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fixations.22 The Self is what it is because it is contrasted with something else that it is not, and groups constitute themselves in relation to other groups (Jørgensen and Phillips 2002, 40, 43). The formation of individual and collective identities happens through discursive processes, during which identities are accepted, refused and negotiated. As meaning can never be ultimately fixed; the way is open for constant social struggles about definitions of society and identity with their respective effects (Jørgensen and Phillips 2002, 24ff., 36). Self and Other are thus always constituted in differential relation to each other and also affected by the struggle for impossible closure or fullness, which renders the Other into the constitutive, as well as the potentially antagonistic Other that is on the one hand ‘necessary’, but reminds the Self of its essential lacking on the other. This is why poststructuralist understandings mostly refer to ‘identity’ as ‘identity/difference’ (i.e. Howarth 2013, 227). Referring to the fundamental lack in every structure, every identity is conceived as ‘dislocated in so far as it depends on an outside which both denies that identity and provides its condition of possibility at the same time’ (Laclau 1990, 39) at the ontological level. At the ontical level, the ‘essential dislocation’ can manifest itself through the experience of an ‘event’, or a confrontation with an Other, that cannot be integrated into the existing meaning system or reconciled with the thus far existing articulations of the Self. What Marchart denotes as ‘crisis’ comes close to dislocation in this sense, as ‘a result of a growing non-correspondence between an old paradigm and its changing institutional or social context, where competing hegemonic practices seek to take the old paradigm’s place’ (Marchart 2007, 56).23 In the case of a dislocation, the Other, or the constitutive outside, can be made responsible for it, resulting in an antagonism (see 3.3) as an ‘experience of the limit of the social’, as ‘the presence of the “Other” 22  David Howarth reads ‘subject positions’ as (temporarily) sedimented forms of identity ‘with which social actors identify in their ongoing social reproduction’. While agreeing with Howarth (cf. Howarth 2013, 227, 246, 250) and other scholars (e.g. Lebow 2012, 17)— and ultimately in his later work also with Laclau—that ‘identification’ (cf. Laclau 2005, 54ff.) is a more accurate notion than identity, as it emphasizes a processual or performative understanding, the conventional term identity is used in this volume. 23  Dislocation is also productive, as this fundamental lack of the structure allows for agency—or the ‘subject’—to emerge. Importantly, however, ‘[…] because structural dislocation is constitutive, the dislocated structure cannot provide the principle of its transformations. The dislocated structure thus opens possibilities of multiple and indeterminate rearticulations […]’ (cf. Laclau 1990, 60, 39, 42).

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prevents me from being totally myself’ (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 125). This limit of the social is not something ‘external’ to the social, but it is ‘given within the social itself as something subverting it, destroying its ambition to constitute a full presence’ (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 127).24 Furthermore, antagonism escapes the possibility of being apprehended through language, since language only exists as an attempt to fix that which antagonism subverts […], for every language and every society are constituted as a repression of the consciousness of the impossibility that penetrates them. (ibid., 125)

Antagonism is captured by Laclau and Mouffe through the logics of equivalence and difference (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 132; cf. Laclau 1990, 39, 50). The logic of equivalence creates equivalent identities through the negation of other discursive systems—or other groups—by subverting the differential character within the own discourse or in-group. The internal differences are (temporarily) cancelled out by referring to an external other that is articulated as fundamentally opposed to everything that constitutes the self. In consequence, the internal differences become equivalent only by being opposed to a common external Other. The logic of difference does the opposite. It expands a given system of differences by dismantling existing relations of equivalence and thereby weakening and dissolving antagonisms. The logic of equivalence thus simplifies the ‘political space’, while the logic of difference makes it more complex (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 130). These two logics are not mutually exclusive but, like between identity and difference, there is always interplay between them, as the in-group strives to construct itself in non-antagonistic terms (Howarth and Stavrakakis 2000, 11; cf. Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 130). Importantly, these internal differences can also be articulated into what in this book are called ‘internal chains of equivalence’ (that expose heterogeneity, see below) between opposing internal positions. Accordingly, the antagonistic camp(s) will always be something more than the simple opposite(s) of the hegemonic force. For empirical analysis it is therefore necessary not to look for one single antagonistic border, but to be aware of

24  On the differences between a Laclauian and a Lacanian understanding of antagonism, see Zerilli (2009, 97–102).

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the different perspectives from which different antagonisms are constructed. (Wullweber 2014, 13; see also Laclau 2005, 130f.)

Moreover, differences are not eliminated through equivalence, they are ‘only’ weakened. Without difference, there would simply be no equivalence, as the equivalential relation consists of nothing positive, just the common ‘lack’ or deficiency—experienced because of the dislocation and attributed to the other (cf. Laclau 2005, 79, 96). This is why the logics of equivalence and difference are articulated through so-called empty signifiers as signifiers of lack. Being ‘empty’, they provide a common point of reference—a nodal point—or equivalent notion of identification for different positions. Empty signifiers stand both for what is lacking in a group or issue at stake and for offering the possibility of a solution to overcome the lack (cf. Howarth 2013, 250). Laclau gives the notion of ‘order’ in a situation of disorder as an example. In a situation of disorder, order becomes an empty signifier as it signifies its own lack or absence, while at the same time pointing to the ‘solution’ to the problem of its absence, that is, the restoration or creation of order. When an empty signifier becomes a signifier of a lack, various proponents can compete to establish their particular concept (e.g. their understanding of ‘order’) for abolishing or dealing with the lack. The ‘successful’ exercise of filling the empty signifier is when the discourse becomes hegemonic, when a particular proponent or group succeeds in (temporarily) establishing its objectives as ‘universal’, that is, as that of the whole collective (cf. Laclau 2007, 44). This often goes hand in hand with articulating the Other that has now become the ‘excluded’ or ‘radical Other’ as responsible for the lack and corresponds with what Campbell in IR has called ‘exclusionary practices in which resistant elements to a secure identity on the “inside” are linked through a discourse of “danger”, with threats identified and located on the “outside”’ (cf. Campbell 1994, 149). To conceal this process, the aim is to ascribe this ‘absolute difference’ to the outside not just as one interpretation among many, but as universally valid, and thus as hegemonic (cf. Ashley 1988, 257; Campbell 1998, 65; Laclau 2007, 42f.). This includes rendering alternatives to the hegemonic articulation unthinkable (Laclau 1988, 57; Marchart 1998, 14). However, it does not mean that the (temporarily) hegemonic articulation cannot be challenged again through alternative perspectives aimed at establishing themselves in turn as ‘common sense’. In this respect identities can be partly understood as ‘strategic constructs’—and indeed a hegemonic perspective emphasizes the role of

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political articulations in the construction of identities—although not in the sense of being completely freely manipulable through a conscious strategy. Identification always depends on the context available (cf. Howarth 2013, 243, 251), but also on the degree to which proponents of a certain position are gripped by a particular perspective or unable to distance themselves from it.25 The attempt to preserve or stabilize a particular identity or discourse has also been termed a ‘defensive hegemonic strategy’ (Nonhoff 2006, 238–240): The defence of the community against an external threat has dislocated that community, which, in order to persist, cannot simply repeat something that preceded the dislocatory moment. That is why someone who wants to maintain an existing order of things has already lost through its very defence. In our terms: the perpetuation of a threatened order can no longer rely on a purely differential logic; its success depends on the inscription of those differences within an equivalential chain. (Laclau 2005, 121)

As described above, this may lead either to articulation of the Self versus the ‘excluded/radical Other’ or to a ‘rearticulated Self’ in terms of dealing with ‘internal’ chains of equivalence.26 These notions are particularly important when looking at how the USA is trying to preserve its identity vis-à-vis Japan and China. Understanding (state-)identity from a PDT perspective can thus be read as corresponding with the (IR) assumption that ‘no state possesses a prediscursive, stable identity, and no state is free from the tension between the various domains that need to be aligned for a political community to come into being, an alignment that is a response to, rather than constitutive of, a prior and stable identity’ (Campbell 1998, 91). The identity of states is discursively constructed through the inscription of limits that serve to distinguish a Self from an Other, an inside from an outside, a domestic from a foreign (ibid., 9). In this sense, a state can be understood as the product of competing hegemonic struggles seeking to impose their projects on society (Howarth 2000, 120), as ‘[…]every social order rests on a forgetting of the exclusion practices through which one set of 25   On the notion of ‘strategy’ in IR-poststructuralism and PDT, see Herschinger (2011, 41ff). 26  See also Herschinger (2011, 50ff.), who understands what she calls ‘counter-hegemonic strategies’ as aimed at shifting, rather than eliminating ‘the frontier’.

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meanings has been institutionalized and various other possibilities—other possible forms of meaning—have been marginalized’ (Shapiro 1989, 15). The focus of this book is to inquire into how and with what outcomes these hegemonic struggles take place in the USA. From the above discussion, probably the two most important aspects when it comes to the differences—and, to a large extent, misunderstandings—between poststructuralist and more conventional (also constructivist) conceptualizations of identity are that identities are neither primordial nor essential, and nor are they in a constant state of fluidity or flux (cf. Howarth 2013, 236). Because of their mutual dependence, neither identity nor difference can ever be fully constituted, while the permanent struggle to do so produces the partial fixations that make it possible to conceive and speak of ‘identity’ and ‘difference’ in the first place (ibid., 242ff.). As has been repeatedly pointed out in discursive approaches to identity, such as in works that focus on how articulations of collective and/or national identity make foreign policy, a discursive or performative reading of identity concerning theory and analysis sheds light on the productive as well as the constraining features involved in articulations of identity ‘on the ground’ (Campbell 1998, 9–13; Doty 1993, 299, 314; see also Hansen 2006, 1; Milliken 1999, 229; e.g. Weldes and Saco 1996, 373). The above-mentioned works align with scholarship focused on ‘how conceptions of national identity are constructed at the level of the state, specifically on how images of Self and Other influence foreign policy’ (Berenskoetter 2010, 3604). These accounts identify ‘states as never finished entities’ (Campbell 1998, 12), ‘constructed by the discursive practices of those who speak about, write about, and act on its behalf’ (Doty 1993, 310) and whose foreign policy or ‘the policy of making foreign’ (Dalby 1988, 419) is a discursive/performative articulation and making of its self-identity vis-à-vis an external other (cf. Campbell 1998, 9; Doty 1993, 310; Hansen 2006, 6).

3.3   Dislocation, Antagonism and Heterogeneity: The Instability of Hegemony An important question arising from this understanding—as well as from what was laid out in Sect. 2.4 on ‘liberal identity’ and ‘the Other’—is the relationship between identity, dislocation and antagonism and the role of

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heterogeneity. Laclau’s understanding of every identity as differential implies a constant attempt to suture identity by expelling difference, even though this is ultimately impossible, and that identity always carries the inherent possibility for dislocation. In his later work, Laclau himself emphasized that dislocation does not need to be constructed in an antagonistic way (see below), meaning that there are no ‘natural’ antagonisms (Laclau 2009, 319; see also Norval 2000, 223): ‘[…] any position in a system of differences, in so far as it is negated, can become the locus of an antagonism’ (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 131). Hence, ‘it becomes necessary to show the discursive strategies constructing a particular antagonism’ (Stäheli 2009, 239), which is the endeavour of this book with respect to the US discourses on Japan and China. The question of whether it is possible to deal with dislocations in a way that does not lead to the construction of difference as ‘Otherness’ has been addressed by several scholars in the field of PDT and beyond (e.g. Connolly 2009, 179; Norval 2000, 212ff., 2009, 151ff.; Stäheli 2009, 234ff.).27 According to Connolly, the problematic of the ‘paradox of identity’ lies in the quest for a ‘true’ identity (cf. also Howarth 2013, 244): […] the paradoxical element in the relation of identity to difference is that we cannot dispense with personal and collective identities, but the multiple drives to stamp truth upon those identities function to convert difference into otherness and otherness into scapegoats created and maintained to secure the appearance of a true identity. (Connolly 1991, 67)

Returning to the question of liberalism and ‘the Other’ and linking it to PDT connects to the question of whether or at what points in US-Japanese and US-Chinese economic relations the liberal theory of history and American exceptionalism are articulated in terms of chains of equivalence, thus drawing limits to its own universalist features by antagonizing the Other in order to preserve the Self. Here, it is necessary to briefly clarify the relation between dislocation and antagonism and the role of heterogeneity in Laclau’s writing. While the notion of antagonism is central to HSS, it is complemented by the term dislocation in New Reflections on the Revolutions of Our Time (NR, 1990): ‘Dislocation is the primary ontological level of constitution of the 27  In IR, see, for example, Lebow (2012), Berenskoetter (2007), Guillaume (2011) and Abizadeh (2005).

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social’ (Laclau 1990, 44). Antagonism, as described above, becomes the potential response to dislocation (Thomassen 2019; Norval 1997, 54). Because of the impossibility of a fully sutured social system, dislocations are always possible, while the inherent strive for closure attempts to preclude them. Thus, in the case of a dislocation, the articulation of a constitutive outside can be made responsible for its own ‘deficiency’, as it serves to suppress the contingency of all identity and society (cf. Torfing 2005, 17). In such a case, the dislocation leads to an antagonism that is expressed through the logics of equivalence and difference as described above. For the relationship between (collective) Self and Other, it is important to reiterate that because of its ontological lack, every identity is prevented from achieving ‘closure’ in terms of a fully constituted identity from within itself. Ontologically, it is always already dislocated—and not because of an encounter with the Other as something external. It is the encounter with the Other that ‘just’ renders the lack visible on an ontical level (Solomon 2015, 13). The notion of heterogeneity, which was introduced by Laclau in his later work, for example, in On Populist Reason (2005), has been picked up by scholars more rarely than other PDT concepts. It refers to the impossibility of closure and highlights the fact that equivalence and difference can never exist exclusively or independently of, but always contaminate, each other. Heterogeneity subverts antagonisms as attempts at discursive closure, as ‘an excess escaping the attempt to discursively objectify the boundaries of identities’ (Thomassen 2019, 43f.). From this understanding, antagonism is not the ‘default option’, but a particular ideological type of discourse that aims to achieve discursive closure in spite of the heterogeneity that it aims to suppress (ibid., 44, 57). Antagonism, as the externalization of the internal structural lack, is a possible ideological response to dislocation but not a necessary one, and it is not the ultimate ‘goal’ of any identity formation (ibid., 47, 50). When Laclau introduced the notion of heterogeneity, he described it as a discursive excess escaping conceptual categories and as such as standing for the limits of representation (ibid. 50f.). Despite attempts to do so through chains of equivalence, heterogeneity can never be completely eliminated, which is why it always undermines antagonisms. There is no way to pin down or capture heterogeneity. It only shows itself through an analysis of concrete contexts (ibid., 53). Consequently, we should also not speak of antagonisms as such, or ‘pure’ antagonisms, but of different degrees of antagonism: ‘Discourse analysis must examine if and how discursive heterogeneity is articulated

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into antagonism but also the heterogeneity created through the articulation of antagonism’ (ibid., 56, emphasis added). As ‘discursive excess’, heterogeneity refers to the simultaneous condition of the possibility and impossibility of hegemonic articulations, including antagonism (ibid., 53). Engaging with heterogeneity thus ‘has implications for how one analyses discourses’, as the analysis should focus on whether antagonism is a response to dislocation: ‘Discourse analysis can neither assume antagonism to be always in existence nor can it consist only in looking for antagonisms to emerge. A discourse analysis must examine whether and why an antagonism was constructed, and it must examine how the antagonism is never fully constituted and may subsequently be transformed’ (Thomassen 2019, 48–49). For example, Herschinger (2011)—in one of the rare accounts to explicitly address heterogeneity—compares the interplay between equivalence and difference in two different empirical contexts: one in which the suppression of heterogeneity is successful and one in which it is not. From the latter, she concludes that ‘heterogeneity—defined as the differential remainder of subjects within a hegemonic project—threatens the development of the project into a “full-fledged” hegemony […] especially if it differentiates the homogenous construction of the Other’ (ibid., 96), and that ‘the concept of heterogeneity encompassed this particularity, the differential remainder of every subject that escaped the inner homogenization of the collective Self’ (ibid. 157). It is however important to note that heterogeneity is neither the same as ‘difference’ nor merely the opposite of homogeneity (cf. Thomassen 2019, 53).28 Heterogeneity disturbs both equivalence and difference, as it does not fit into either of these chains. It escapes categorization or discursive mastering (Thomassen 2019, 56) and thus exposes the construction of both Self and Other as always incomplete. In this respect, heterogeneity is not confined to being the differential remainder that escapes ‘the inner homogenization of the collective Self’, but more profoundly refers to the undecidable relation between equivalence and difference when it comes to both Self and Other (ibid., 54), and which can never be removed even from more or less stable hegemonic discourses (ibid., 55–56). The Self fails to eliminate heterogeneity not just because of heterogeneity in—or heterogeneity ‘triggered’ by—the Other, but because of its own heterogeneity. 28  As seems to be the case according to Herschinger’s formulations, which mainly focus on heterogeneous articulations of the Other by the Self.

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The analysis in the following chapters provides examples of this in the identity discourses around American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history, which allow different constructions of Self and Other. Heterogeneity is what leaves room for change to happen. Therefore, antagonisms are not necessary, but there may be ways to rely on relations of difference to construct hegemonic discourses (Thomassen 2019, 56).29 While Herschinger (2011) maintains that hegemonies rest on antagonisms, she also points out that heterogeneity sheds light on how different kinds of identity construction produce different ‘degrees of otherness’ (2011, 8; 30; 97; 132). This is also an aspect identified by Hansen, among others, who has described collective identity constructions as processes of differentiation and linking (somewhat reminiscent of difference and equivalence) that constitute relations of sameness and difference. Different forms of differentiation and linking yield ‘different kinds of “othering”’ with different (political) consequences. Hansen refers to Tzvetan Todorov’s Conquest of America, where the Native Americans as a ‘different Other’ are seen as ‘savages’ by both Cortés and Las Casas. For Cortés this meant ‘non-human’, incapable of change and beyond redemption, while for Las Casas they were ‘human but heathen’ and thus ‘changeable and salvable’ (Hansen 2007, 43, 47). Cortés’ resulting policy was conquest and annihilation, while Las Casas’ was conquest and conversion. What is common to Herschinger’s and Hansen’s takes on difference is that they implicitly address the role of the capacity for change and the transformation of difference in the Other, which the Self deems either present/ expected or not.30 The different articulations of difference/different or forms of ‘Othering’ according to these expectations are a crucial feature of the discourses in the US Congress on Japan and China. The Other’s capacity for change/transformation is also a central component of Rumelili’s account, in which she proposes different types of collective identity: inclusive and exclusive. An inclusive identity allows for the 29  See Norval’s (1997) critique of the focus on negativity in identity formation and her distinction between differentiation and individuation, as well as Connolly’s (1995) related critique of Mouffe’s reliance on Schmitt. On IR see also, for example, Rumelili and Todd (2018, 8) and the references therein. 30  The thought of an inferior or ‘underdeveloped’ Other eventually and/or potentially progressing towards the developed (Western) Self is an underlying theme, for example, of development, democratization and human rights discourses (Hansen 2006, 48), and has been critically treated by postcolonial literature, where it is often termed ‘colonial desire’ (e.g. Pan 2012; Ling 2002).

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accommodation of difference, as it is based on characteristics that the Other can potentially acquire by changing, such as liberalism, democracy or capitalism. Exclusive identities are in turn based on inherent features, such as geography or common history that cannot be achieved through change. Inclusive identities have the potential to see the Other as ‘only’ temporarily different (‘the other as less-self’), and thus account for the possibility of a change in the Other, while exclusive identities (‘the other as non-self’) do not see such change as viable (Rumelili 2007, 38f.).31 Rumelili points out that these categories are fluid and liminal (see also Rumelili 2012) and that the Other as actor must be taken into account.32 In the opinion of the author, there are no inclusive or exclusive types as such, but inclusive or exclusive articulations of identity are both variations of the interplay of identity/difference and heterogeneity that can manifest themselves in different ways in different situations. Laclau and Mouffe’s logics of equivalence and difference offer themselves as a reading of exclusive and inclusive types, Hansen’s strategies of linking and differentiation, as well as strategies of securitization/desecuritization (Rumelili 2013), as articulations that are never completely confined to ‘one type’ or strategy, but are always haunted by heterogeneity. As the empirical analysis shows, the discursive construction of the Self in the light of American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history exposes both equivalence and difference or exclusive/confrontational and inclusive/accommodating features.

3.4   From ‘Ideas’ to Discourses: Rhetorical Political Analysis33 One early treatment of methodological issues when studying discourse in IR that still speaks to many prevalent questions and issues is Milliken’s article from 1999. She argues that the refusal ‘to engage in mainstream modes of doing social science’ should not lead to an exclusion of issues of 31  Accordingly, inclusive identities may carry more threat perception and construction potential, as they become threatened by Others that do not want to become like the Self, as in Rumelili’s example the USA versus the Soviet Union during the Cold War. 32  There are connecting points between the notions of liminality and heterogeneity, especially in understanding heterogeneity as something that escapes or defies categorization. Likewise, there are connecting points to the concept of the Stranger (Berenskoetter and Nymalm, under review). 33  For an  overview on  the  (missing) rhetorical turn in  the social and  political sciences, linked to ‘ideational analysis’, see Finlayson (2004).

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research practice and method (Milliken 1999, 226). Like many discourse-­ related approaches, PDT does not provide a clear-cut, ready-made set of methods regarding the objects or the conduct of empirical research. This was not a concern of Laclau and Mouffe (cf. Laclau 2009, 321), but became so for later proponents of PDT, to meet the criticism that ‘discourse theory has thrown the methodological baby out with the epistemological bathwater’ by dismissing questions of method and methodology as ‘a positivist obsession’ (Torfing 2005, 27).34 They started to debate and address the ‘Cinderella role’ of methodological questions in discourse theory (cf. Howarth 2005, 316, 2013, 84; Nonhoff 2007, 174) in several publications on ‘applied’ discourse theory and possible research strategies (e.g. Howarth and Torfing 2005). Briefly put, PDT opposes any understanding of method as ‘a free-­ standing, neutral set of rules and techniques that can be applied mechanically to all empirical objects’ (Howarth 2005, 317; cf. Torfing 2005, 27). Instead, questions of method in PDT are always related to its philosophical premises, which reject essentialist or representational theories of knowledge production, as well as to the particular topics and objects of research (Glynos and Howarth 2007, 6; Howarth 2000, 132, cf. 2005, 317). To provide a ‘grammar’ or bridge for translating PDT into research practice, Glynos and Howarth (2007) put forward the concept of the Logics of Critical Explanation (LCE), which conceives of PDT as an ‘explanatory, interpretative and critical theory’ that through its application seeks to avoid the problems of empiricism, subsumption and eclecticism (with reference to Bernstein 1976, 235; Glynos and Howarth 2011). Instead of being a ‘methods toolbox’, LCE contextualizes PDT’s methodological premises and ways forward into the broader field of the social sciences. Although it does not provide any concrete ‘tools’ for analysis, PDT constantly stresses the centrality of language when it comes to the aim of characterizing practices and regimes of meaning-making and meaning-­ fixing. Building on the centrality assigned to the role of language and rhetoric as conceived in PDT at an ontological and an ontical level, the

34  Although their writings are often labelled (and often dismissed as) ‘purely theoretical’, Laclau and Mouffe have elaborated on how their theories are connected to understanding events during the Cold War (cf. Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 1ff), the transformations in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the late 1980s (cf. Laclau 1990, xi) and in connection to Laclau’s experiences in Argentina since the 1960s (cf. Laclau 2014, 1ff.).

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analysis in this book draws on methods for the analysis of political rhetoric (RPA). Rhetoric is characterized as the practical science and art of effective or efficient speaking and writing in public or, more specifically, the science and art of the persuasive use of language. The three crucial means of such persuasion are logos, ethos and pathos. From the prevailing (dualist) point of view, persuasion connected with logos uses sound argumentation such as factual information, whereas ethos and pathos draw on ‘non-­ argumentative’ means such as emotionalization, suggestion, demagogy, propaganda, the use of threat and so on (but see below).35 Rhetorical analysis thus seeks to analyse the employment and effect of linguistic and other semiotic means of persuasion in rhetorical terms. Political rhetoric in this context refers to the use of rhetorical means of persuasion by professional politicians (cf. Reisigl 2008, 97; see also Gottweis 2007, 243). Finlayson argues that: we need to examine not ideas but arguments and […] to analyze political persuasion and preference transformation we must reacquaint ourselves with the rhetorical tradition. […] Rhetoric draws our attention to forms of argument and reasoning that exceed the strictures of syllogism yet manifestly operate and function in real-world contexts of argument. (Finlayson 2007, 546; 553 emphasis added)

In line with PDT’s understanding of discourse, RPA opposes the treatment of rhetoric as a mere supplement to ‘real action’, or as a manipulative, merely instrumental and strategic means as opposed to ‘reason’ and ‘truth’. In other words, it rejects the tendency to reduce argumentation to the operation of logos, by ignoring the other two components of rhetoricity, ethos and pathos (Glynos et al. 2009, 13–14; cf. Gottweis 2007, 240; cf. Hülsse 2003, 212f., 237f.; cf. De Man 1984, 196f.; cf. Shapiro 1984, 229f., 239f.). In this sense, argumentation is not reduced to ‘the creation and exchange of arguments’ but it is considered a ‘performative process in which the boundaries of argumentation are defined’ (Gottweis 2007, 35  In accounts that regard discourse as ‘mere rhetoric’, it is usually understood as being differentiated from the ‘logos’, in terms of being ‘irrational’ (cf. Laclau 2005, 12; see also Gottweis 2007, 239). On persuasion being inseparable from politics in general and accounting for ‘the politicality of politics’, see Finlayson (2004, 536), who also argues in favour of the rhetorical conception of politics more generally. For a conceptualization of rhetorical coercion rather than persuasion see Krebs and Jackson (2007).

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245). The question is thus about how ‘ideas’ matter. PDT regards rhetoric as a constitutive aspect of social reality and its analysis as an essential part of understanding and explaining social phenomena (Howarth and Griggs 2008, 199).36 On an ontical level, the analysis of rhetoric sheds light on the functioning and structuration of discourses. At the ontological level, these phenomena are not understood as being represented by how we speak about them, but seen as bearing a character of rhetoricity (Stäheli 2000a, 13f.), in terms of being expressivist and constitutive as opposed to designative (cf. Michel 2013, 275): ‘[…] thought remains the captive of the linguistic mode in which it seeks to grasp the outline of objects inhabiting its field of perception’ (White 1974, xi, ix–xii, 1–42).37 In other words, we as ‘observers’ can only observe via the (linguistic) communicative concepts we possess (cf. Walter and Helmig 2008, 120). In this sense, Laclau does not only speak of the central role of rhetoric in the structuration of any signifying system (Laclau 2009, 325) and states that rhetoric should be a privileged field of inquiry ‘if we are searching for a terrain in which the subversion of identities resulting from antagonistic relations could be represented’ (Laclau 2006, 106). He also speaks of the social organized as a rhetorical space or rhetorical mechanisms as the ‘anatomy of the social world’ (Laclau 2000, 79, 2005, 110). It follows from this that from the point of view of PDT, there is no way to escape the dimension of rhetoric, as it relates to the ontological dimension of PDT regarding the materiality of discourses: ‘Synonymy, metonymy, metaphor are not forms of thought that add a second sense to a primary, constitutive literality of social relations; instead, they are part of the primary terrain itself in which the social is constituted’ (Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 110). In addition, ‘So, far from these devices being mere rhetoric, they are inherent in the logics presiding over the constitution and dissolution of any political space’ (Laclau 2005, 19). With regard to the ontological horizon, Laclau articulates hegemony as a ‘politico-topological movement’ and as: ‘[…] metonymical: its effects always emerge from a surplus of meaning which results from an operation of displacement’, meaning that a particular group takes up the demands of 36  On references to the philosophy of the antique school of rhetoric in the theory of Laclau, see Hetzel (2007, 88ff.). 37  In his work on nineteenth-century historiography, White focuses not only on the ‘content’ of the respective works, but on their linguistic mode. On rhetorical analyses of social science itself, see, for example, McCloskey (1998), Fuchs and Ward (1994, 488ff.) and Gusfield (1976).

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other groups or extends its demands into nearby domains (Howarth and Griggs 2008, 11; Laclau 1998, 154; Laclau and Mouffe 2001, 141). Where a demand or claim of a particular group comes to symbolize the demands of an entire community, thus becoming hegemonic by filling the ‘empty signifier’, it becomes a metaphor. It creates new meaningful entities—orders of discourse or regimes of practice—by disarticulating and replacing previously existing ones (Howarth and Griggs 2008, 207). Meanwhile, this practice bears a catachrestical element, where catachresis stands for the misapplication of a word or ‘a transfer of terms from one place to another employed when no proper word exists’, for example, the ‘wings’ of an airplane or the ‘leg’ of a chair (Parker 1990, 60, cited in Howarth and Griggs 2008, 200; Laclau 2005, 71), which is also true of the empty signifier that carries no proper meaning but acquires it only through hegemonic operation. Analogous to the ultimately precarious character of every (hegemonic) discourse, Laclau points out that the demarcations between these rhetorical tropes as categories are permeable, and thus correspond with the ultimate impossibility of fixing a particular meaning once and for all (cf. also Michel 2013, 286), and highlights the structural incompleteness of all social reality (cf. Laclau 2001, 170). While one possibility of putting PDT into practice through rhetorical analysis is to focus explicitly on the tropes mentioned by Laclau (see, for instance, Howarth and Griggs, 2008; Nabers 2015), a different approach is chosen in this book. Putting Theory into Practice To put the key terms of PDT into practice in a discourse analysis, this book draws on the so-called politicolinguistic approach.38 In particular, nomination (naming of actors),39 predication (attribution of features),40 argumentation (justification/delegitimization of nominations and predications) and perspectivation (point of view of expression), as well as intensification /mitigation of the above-mentioned categories (cf. Reisigl 2008),41 are used to capture the Laclauian logics of equivalence and difference.  This passage partly draws on Nymalm (2013).  On what she calls subject positioning, see Doty (1993, 308–309, 313–316). 40  On predicate analysis, see also Milliken (1999, 231–234) and Doty (1993, 306–307, 310–312). 41  On her conceptualization of these categories as ‘discursive strategies’, see also Wodak (2009, 40ff.), who, for instance, includes metaphors, metonymies and synecdoches under nominations. 38 39

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The categories and the Laclauian concepts are linked as follows: within the logics of equivalence and difference, Self and Other are constructed by articulating them in certain ways, and this happens via nomination and predication. By linking these characterizations to chains of equivalence and difference, the speakers use arguments to justify the nominations and predications. By differentiating the in-group from the out-group—the Self from the Other—the speakers articulate themselves from a certain perspective. Thus, they relate themselves to nodal points that are eventually turned into empty signifiers. The empty signifier makes the cancellation of differences within the in-group possible by enabling an equalization of its characteristics vis-à-vis the out-group. The intensification of the nominations, predications, arguments and perspectives endorses the articulation of an ‘excluded Other’ through the attempt to fill the empty signifier(s). Mitigation, in turn, like the logics/chains of difference, stands for the attempts to dissolve and/or build different chains of equivalence. Drawing on these linguistic categories read through the theoretical lens of PDT leads to a structuring of the research material as a first step by answering five questions (cf. Reisigl 2008, 99f.) pertaining to the categories and key concepts of PDT: 1. How are the actors linguistically constructed by being named? (nominations/Self and Other) 2. What positive or negative traits, qualities and features are attributed to the linguistically constructed actors? (predications/Self and Other) 3. Through what arguments and argumentation schemes are claims containing specific nominations and predications attempted to be justified or delegitimized? (argumentation/chains of equivalence and difference) 4. From what perspective or point of view are these nominations, predications and argumentations expressed? (perspectivation/chains of equivalence and difference) 5. Are the nominations, predications and argumentations articulated overtly, are they intensified or are they mitigated? (intensification and/or mitigation/empty signifiers) Yet, in many—if not most—cases, the analytic categories are not clearly separable in the empirical material: most frequently the nominations are

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already carrying a predicative, qualitative meaning and the perspective is already part of the argument. In those cases, the predications and perspectivations are already functioning as intensifications or mitigations of the nominations and argumentations, respectively. Furthermore, it is possible to draw the main contextual topics and lines of argumentation of the debates from the category of predication and argumentation (cf. Reisigl 2007, 41, 250), and this corresponds to how the speakers are nominated with respect to their ‘identity’ regarding the topic. A focus on both sides—positive/negative traits, justification/delegitimization and intensification/mitigation—accounts for capturing the heterogeneity and ambivalence present in all of these articulations regarding both Other and Self. Moreover, it allows for articulations of potential ‘inclusion’/accommodation of a potentially changing Other to be taken into account or in turn for confrontation/‘exclusion’ when change is ruled out. As the analysis shows, American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history as prevalent discourses on US identity expose heterogeneity by allowing for different constructions of Self and Other. With heterogeneity leaving room for change, intensifications are about eliminating heterogeneity from both discourses on the Other and the Self, ruling out any possibility of change. Mitigations in turn reintroduce heterogeneity. Structuring of the Analysis The findings of the discourse analysis of the Congressional Record are presented in the following chapters. First, an overview of the more general nominations and predications is provided in Chap. 5. According to these, the central topics of the discourses on Japan and China are set out through their argumentation in Chap. 6. This is followed by the perspectivations relating to the topics in Chap. 7. The material identifies the two central topics related to the dislocation of US identity by Japan and China as the trade deficit and the (possible) challenge to the USA’s global leadership and role as global role model as accorded by American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history. These topics, the central nodal points connected to them and the positioning towards them account for the chains of equivalence and difference throughout the categories of argumentation and perspectivation and finally, intensification and mitigation in Chap. 8. The category of perspectivation in Chap. 7 is treated for both topics together—as when looking at how the US perspective of itself

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in relation to Japan and China, the trade deficit and resulting debt are articulated as a ‘cause’ of or a reason for the ensuing leadership question. For the same reason, intensification and mitigation are also treated together for both topics. While, in general, intensification attempts to foster the chains of equivalence through an emphasis on the empty signifier, and the aim is to establish a particular understanding of ‘the problem’ while also offering a solution to it—and mitigation aims to weaken or even dissolve the antagonisms through chains of difference—both articulations also lend themselves to internal chains of equivalence that expose heterogeneity. The dislocation, nodal points and empty signifiers are also present in articulation and perspectivation. However, they figure even more clearly through intensification and mitigation in the corresponding topics. Finally, references to ‘the USA’ in this analysis denote the expressions or self-attributions of the speakers. Here, ‘the USA’ stands for Congress as one example of the field of public elite discourse. Even though ‘the USA’, is used with regard to a broader perspective, Congress alone and the articulations voiced there are not generally regarded as entirely representative of the USA as a whole, but conceived as part of a bigger picture that lies outside of this particular analysis (but see the introduction and conclusion). Collection and Organization of Sources The analysis focuses on debates in the US Congress on economic issues related to Japan and China between 1985 and 2008. It is not intended to be tied to specific events, but instead to capture a broader picture of topics and matters that were raised in relation to the field of economic policy. To delimit the sources, they were retrieved for specific years within the time frame, during which significant events occurred in the economic field related to Japan and China, but also globally. The selection in the first instance was based on a careful reading of the secondary literature, with adjustments made during the course of reading the material. The events were (see the introduction): 1985: The Plaza Accords; the first year since 1945 that the USA was a debtor nation 1989: The Structural Impediments Initiative (SII); the end of the Cold War

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1994–1995: Important trade summits with Japan; debates on China’s Most Favored Nation (MFN) status 1997: The Asian financial crisis 2000/2001: China’s accession to the World Trade Organization 2005: China announces the end of exclusive dollar peg of its currency; debates on acquisition of Californian oil company (Unocal) by Chinese company (CNOOC) 2008: ‘Outbreak’ of the financial crisis; China becomes the USA’s largest creditor. While the 1985, 1989, 1994–1995, 2000–2001 and 2005 incidents are more Japan-/China-specific, albeit with global implications, the end of the Cold War, the Asian financial crisis and the global financial crisis account for what are commonly denominated as globally significant economic developments with implications for the relationship between the USA and the respective number two economy. To avoid confining the analysis ‘only’ to these events, the respective years were looked at in their entirety. A search of the Congressional Record was conducted using the keywords ‘Japan economy’ and ‘China economy’. All the results for the terms were included, in the same order and where the words were found near each other.42 The Congressional Record consists of all statements made by the members of Congress—the Senate and the House of Representatives—speaking on the floor of the two chambers,43 as well as the Extension of Remarks.44 Not all of the events used as initial guidelines for the collection of a body of texts turned out to figure prominently in the debates themselves, while other incidents that happened in the same year moved to the forefront. For instance, in 1989 the debates on the FSX-fighter aircraft played  See (accessed 24 January 2015).  It records debates and statements made on the floor of each chamber, as well as various parliamentary actions and roll call votes. In addition, it contains communications from the president and the executive branch, memorials, petitions and information on legislation, including amendments. Committee activities are not reported here, although mention is made of reports received and meeting notices. Conference committee reports are typically printed in the record (see ibid.). 44  This section is now used only by House of Representatives to include additional legislative statements not actually delivered on the House floor, as well as extraneous material, such as texts of speeches delivered outside Congress, letters from and tributes to constituents and newspaper or magazine articles. Similar extraneous material from senators is inserted in the Additional Statements section of the Senate part of the record (see ibid.). 42 43

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a prominent role, while in 2005 the announcement by China that it would no longer be pegging its currency exclusively to the dollar, but to a basket of currencies, did not feature explicitly in the documents retrieved. This did not have an impact on the analysis itself, however, as the initial goal was not to study these events in particular, but to look at the broader evolving discourse on economic relations. The average output for 1989, 1994, 1995 and 1997 was around 60 documents for each country. In 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2008 the documents on Japan decreased to around 30 for each year, but there was an increase for China to around 100. This fits with Bob’s analysis of the Congressional Record for 1991–2000, which concludes that the 104th Congress (1995–1996) was a turning point. Before then, there were more bills on and references made to Japan, while after there were more made to China (Bob 2001, 111  f.). In 1985 there were 60 results for Japan, while China was mentioned only a few times in the documents.45 Depending on the occasion and the nature of the remarks, the length of the documents differed greatly from a single page to over 80 pages. A first reading of the still relatively large number of documents identified the two main topics—the trade deficit and the leadership challenge— and allowed the selection of documents for a more detailed rhetorical analysis. For this, 219 exemplary documents containing the initial key terms (137 on Japan and 82 on China, although China was additionally often referenced in the documents on Japan)46 were coded using the coding software atlas.ti, with the analytic categories derived from RPA as codes.47 Ordering the documents according to the codes, analytic categories and PDT key concepts led to a further structuring of the analysis into the subtopics of the respective analysis chapters. Organization according to topics and subtopics, analytic categories and PDT key terms means that the analysis is not strictly chronological, but topical and conceptual/by category. Even if the year is not explicitly mentioned, however, the references to the documents allow the reader to 45  As the record is publicly available online only for 1989 and after, the sources for 1985 were scans of the bound record accessed on site and/or through the database Proquest Congressional. References for 1985 are to the bound record. 46  The documents explicitly focused on China retrieved in the Japan search are indicated in the bibliography. 47  atlas.ti was used as an organizing tool to manage the amount of documents and codes, not as an analytic device. On discourse analysis and coding, see, for example, Diaz-Bone and Schneider (2010) and Glasze et al. (2009).

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identify from the bibliography on what occasion and in which year the statement was made. The articulations are split into the analytical categories and concepts and, in a first step, in a sense detached from their original ‘context’,48 rather than treated strictly chronologically, because the analysis is not meant to recapitulate or narrate what ‘actually happened’. Instead, the focus is on the discursive and always heterogeneous construction and articulation of identities, which does not occur in a linear way. It does not start from a clear ‘beginning’ and lead on to a particular outcome. The articulation of identities happens through constant shifts in and renegotiations of relations and meanings that can be captured by looking at the topics or nodal points in relation to which the different modes and potentials for identification are enabled or become feasible. This is also the reason for treating Congress as ‘unitary actor’, while still accounting for the differential positions voiced, but not for the individual speakers or their party or committee affiliation. The focus of this book is not on the hidden/implicit ‘purposes’ of the speakers in a narrow behavioural or motivational sense, but instead on the structuration of the publicly and openly conducted discourses as meaning-structures in which the speakers navigate, while being more or less aware or reflective of them. The procedural and ‘motivational’ aspect of Congressional policies in terms of voting behaviour and party/interest group affiliation have been addressed by previous studies (see the introduction and Chap. 1), whereas questions of identity and discourse in Congress have thus far been disregarded. Furthermore, the aim is not to evaluate whether Japan and China and their policies were, for instance, ‘actually unfair’, which has remained a more or less controversial or unresolved issue among scholars and experts (cf. i.e. Reifman 1989, 2). Instead, the emphasis is on how the alleged unfairness was articulated. Balanced views (i.e. from the CRS) highlight what they classify as ‘real problems’ but also the hyperbole and misperceptions in the political debates on both sides (cf. Nanto 1992; Morrison 2014).49 The bottom line in both cases seems to be that Japan and China were or are seen as pursuing policies, such as restricting imports or 48  The nominations and predications will however reappear in the ‘context’ of argumentation and perspectivation in the respective chapters. 49  Nanto’s CRS report, for instance, characterizes congressional policymaking with respect to trade with Japan as ‘driven by strong domestic interests, appeals to broad political principles, and numerous horror stories’ (Nanto 1992, 1, emphasis added).

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pegging their currency, aimed at maximizing their advantage, but the effects on the US economy in terms of the trade deficit are not as self-­ evident as argued by those who blame only Japan and China for the deficit and its consequences (cf. i.e. Bown and McCulloch 2009).50 The imbalances are also due to structural differences in the economies, such as between saving, spending and investment rates, as well as the continuous US dependence on foreign investment to finance its budget deficit (Keidel 2011; for a general assessment of these factors, see, for instance, Moran 2015; cf. Reifman 1989, 4f.). These kinds of debates are continuing during the Trump presidency, where, for instance, the use of tariffs by the administration to lower the trade deficit between the USA and China is criticized for failing to acknowledge broader structural issues (e.g. Bergsten 2018; Lynch 2019).

 For an assessment of ‘currency manipulation’, see, for example, Frankel (2015).

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PART II

CHAPTER 4

The US Congressional Discourse on Japan and China: Issues and Topics

4.1   The US Congress and Japan: Issues and Topics The major debates on Japanese and US economic policy during the time frame analysed mainly revolved around the question of increasing Japanese imports into the USA in the face of continuing barriers to US exports to Japan. These matters of market share, and increasingly also industrial competition, were connected to the omnipresent trade balance issue (see Figs. 4.1 and 4.2), which acted as a ‘lightning rod’ (cf. Nanto 1992), as well as to the question of Japanese investment in the USA (Hodges 1989; Kunkel 2003, 32, 37; cf. Morris 2010, 24). At the beginning of the 1980s, the prevailing topic and cause of economic friction were the high number of Japanese car exports to the USA. After many rounds of negotiations, in 1981 the parties came to an agreement on so-called voluntary export restrictions (VERs) by the Japanese side for an initial three years. These were subsequently extended until they were ended in 1994.1 These extensions were regularly debated in Congress. Furthermore, there were several initiatives intended to ‘open 1  This agreement prompted the biggest Japanese car producers to set up factories in the USA, which did not reduce but partly added to the frictions (cf. Hodges 1989; Jackson 1990, 4f.). Competition in cars and car parts actually became more intense after the VERs, and this kind of protection of US home industries turned out to be more expensive than expected (Nanto 1992, 8). See Bown and McCulloch (2009, 671, 674), also on other sectors.

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Fig. 4.1  US trade in goods with Japan in billions of US dollars. (Source: Trade data from the US Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5880.html (accessed 26 March 2015). All figures in US Dollars are on a nominal basis, not seasonally adjusted)

up’ the allegedly closed Japanese market for diverse goods ranging from satellites to beef, culminating in the so-called Market-Oriented-Sector-­ Specific (MOSS) talks of 1985 and 1986. These, however, did not lead to a significant outcome in terms of improvement from a US perspective (cf. Mastanduno 1992, 240).2 In 1985, the so-called Plaza Accords were negotiated within the framework of the G7 by the five major industrial nations: the USA, Japan, West Germany, France and the UK. The main goal of the accords was to drive down the value of the US dollar (cf.

2  The talks centred on sectors in which US exporters had very low market share in Japan compared to other markets, that is, medical and telecommunications equipment, forestry products and car parts (cf. Nanto 1992, 12).

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Fig. 4.2  US trade in goods with Japan as percentage of US GDP. (Sources: Trade data from the US Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, https:// www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5880.html (accessed 26 March 2015). GDP data from the US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, http://www.bea.gov/national/index.htm#gdp (accessed 26 March 2015). All figures in US Dollars and GDP are on a nominal basis, not seasonally adjusted)

Hummel 2000, 145; Kunkel 2003, 53),3 as it was seen as a major contributory factor to imbalances in trade and investment.4 Japan was also accused of manipulating its currency (see sources P16:45; P79:4; P141:3; 3  The high dollar was in part a result of policies initiated by the Reagan administration in the early 1980s: high interest rates to attract foreign investors to buy government bonds in order to reduce the fiscal deficit. The subsequent rise in the dollar had a negative impact on US producers and exporters vis-à-vis European and Japanese competition, leading to job losses in US industries (Hummel 2000, 139). 4  A report to Congress on Japanese investment in the USA in the 1980s attributes the surge in Japanese portfolio investments (i.e. treasury securities, corporate stocks and bonds) to the high interest rates and the fall in domestic savings below investment requirements, which was ‘compensated’ for by foreign capital inflows. Japanese investment reflected the favourable investment climate in the USA, while—according to the report—the full impact of foreign investment on the US economy was not entirely understood at the time, ‘which seems to fuel the national debate over the costs and benefits of investment’ (Jackson 1990, 22ff.). See also Gilpin (1987, 332).

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cf. also i.e. Kennedy 1988, 459), although this argument was used less frequently than it would be later with China. While a depreciation in the dollar did result in an increase in US exports and a reduction in the bilateral trade deficit by 1990, the effect seemed to fade after 1991 (cf. Nanto 1992, 3ff., 11). In 1986 an agreement was reached on trade in semiconductors. Nonetheless, US sanctions were imposed—the first trade sanctions against Japan since the end of World War II (cf. Packard 1987, 3)—in the following year (cf. Hummel 2000, 139ff.). In 1989, the so-called FSX fighter plane agreement between the USA and Japan gave rise to major controversy (cf. i.e. Spar 1992). The USA had initially agreed to the transfer of F-16 aircraft technology to Japan to function as a basis for a new Japanese aircraft. However, the initial agreement was much-contested domestically, and the central issue became not only whether Japan—a close US ally—could be trusted with the technology (cf. Morris 2010, 57), but also the fear that Japan’s aircraft industry might want to outcompete the US industry (cf. Packard 1987, 5f.). These issues were tied to ‘the Toshiba scandal’ (see analysis). Debate also ensued around the question of whether the deal could not have been concluded in a more profitable way for the US side, given the existing trade deficit (see Fig. 4.1) which had risen from around $16 billion in 1981 to $49 billion in 1989, after peaking at $57 billion in 1987 (Nanto 1992, 4). The debate centred around whether the agreement should not have presented an opportunity for Japan to show ‘good will’ as a trading partner and an ally (cf. Spar 1992, 282). The agreement was eventually revised, enabling the protection of certain US technologies and a higher share for US companies in the production of the aircraft. In 1989, the so-called Structural Impediments Initiative (SII) attempted to deal with what had by then become the highly contentious issue of Japanese structural trade barriers in the areas of savings and investment, land use, pricing mechanisms, the distribution system, keiretsu/inter-firm relationships and exclusionary business practices.5 This led to two agreements and the removal of Japan from the list of ‘unfair trading partners’ according to the 1988 Super 301 legislation (cf. Mastanduno 1992;

5  Keiretsu is the practice within certain industrial groups of firms of fostering their business relationships by holding blocks of shares in each other’s firms (Jackson 1990, 28).

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Schoppa 1997, 74), under which it had been cited earlier in the year.6 Another legislative provision passed along with the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 ‘with Japan in mind’ was the so-called Exon-­ Florio provision. This granted the president the authority to suspend or prohibit foreign acquisitions, mergers or takeovers of US businesses that threatened to impair national security. The rationale behind this was the proposed acquisition from a French company by Fujitsu of the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation (Jackson 1990, 27). In 1989, under the administration of George H. W. Bush, Japan was cited under the Super 301 as an ‘unfair trading nation’, along with Brazil and India (Morris 2010, 56).7 The launch of the SII initiative, shortly after having cited Japan under Super 301, was commonly regarded as a ‘compromise’ or as representing the ‘institutional battle between Congress and the executive and [for] the ideological battle between traditional liberal economic and Cold War principles on the one hand and emerging “revisionist” views on the other’ (Schoppa 1997, 75).8 At this time, Congress was described as having fractured into ‘two contending ideological camps in relation to Japan’, much as the ‘revisionists’ and their critics had done. As one observer puts it, ‘you have to be a Japan-basher or you’re considered either a naïve idiot or a tool of the Japan lobby. There’s no rational middle anymore’ (Morris 2010, 57). Finally, under the Clinton administration the so-called Framework (for a New Economic Partnership) Talks were initiated in 1993. They evolved 6  According to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, or ‘Super 301’ as it was legislated in 1988, the president is authorized to ‘take all appropriate and feasible’ action in response to any foreign practice that is ‘unjustifiable, unreasonable, or discriminatory and burdens or restricts United States commerce’. The Super 301 calls on the president—or, if in response to a petition, the Trade Representative—to retaliate if negotiations to abolish identified restrictions fail (Goldstein 1993, 194f.). It had been proposed previously in 1986 and was probably drafted ‘with Japan in mind’ (Mastanduno 1992, 242). 7  Section 301 was initiated by President Reagan in 1985 in reaction to congressional pressure on Japan, Brazil, South Korea and the European Economic Community (EEC). According to Kunkel (2003, 53), these initiatives ‘averted what might otherwise have become a wholesale congressional revolt against executive branch primacy on trade policy’, which is why he characterizes them as an important turning point ‘ushering in a new policy environment more favorable to critics of Japan’s trade policies’ (see also Hummel 2000, 139ff). 8  ‘Cold War principles’ refer to the prioritization of security- and alliance-related aspects in the bilateral relationship, to the detriment of economic and trade issues, as the critics of this line argued.

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into the same notorious disputes on ‘objective criteria’ or ‘numerical targets’ that had been the reason for US sanctions on semiconductors back in 1986. Whereas the USA wanted to agree on concrete numbers for the market share of foreign companies in the respective sectors in Japan, this was vehemently opposed by Japan. The negotiations failed in 1994, and in the same year the USA imposed sanctions on Japanese mobile phones for the alleged violation of an earlier agreement and also reinstated the Super 301 regulation. Sanctions were averted and an agreement reached on certain sectors and products after the USA dropped its demand for numerical targets. When it came to the still contentious issue of cars and car parts in 1995, US sanctions were also avoided through a last-minute agreement, with the USA failing to achieve its goal of concrete numbers on market share. This also marked the end of US offensive strategies when it came to trade with Japan (cf. Hummel 2000, 149ff.; Paulsen 1999, 134ff.; Uriu 2009, 241f.).

4.2   The US Congress and China: Issues and Topics With China the main question was also the growing trade deficit (Figs. 4.3 and 4.4), which increased from around $6 billion in 1989 to $286 billion in 2008, accompanied by a heated debate about manipulation of the Chinese currency, especially after 2003 (cf. Nymalm 2013). Until 2000, these issues were linked to the topic of Most Favored Nation (MFN) status or Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR),9 and the question of whether trade relations with China should not just depend on economic issues, but also be conditioned on an improvement in its domestic human rights situation. The issue of MFN with China goes back to its suspension in 1951 in accordance with the Trade Agreements Extension Act, in which the administration was called on by Congress to suspend MFN for the Soviet 9  Since 1934, the USA has applied the MFN status (with regard to tariffs) routinely to all external trade relations. This mechanism was created by the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act (RTAA), which ended the protectionist regime of the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. The term ‘most favoured nation’ is misleading, as it only grants the same benefits/low tariffs negotiated with that partner given to all the other trading partners with that status (cf. Kolkmann 2005, 37, 102). MFN was renamed PNTR in 1998, as the old term had become hard to communicate to constituents, especially in the case of China (Gagliano 2014, 143f.; see also Dumbaugh 1998, 34). In Congress, opponents of the MFN status had argued that it suggested that ‘certain nations on this planet are most favored in the eyes of the United States and in the eyes of Americans […]’ (P113:19).

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Fig. 4.3  US trade in goods with China in billions of US dollars. (Sources: Trade data from the US Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5880.html (accessed 26 March 2015). GDP data from the US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, http://www.bea.gov/national/index.htm#gdp (accessed 26 March 2015). All figures in US Dollars and GDP are on a nominal basis, not seasonally adjusted)

Union and all other countries in the ‘Sino-Soviet bloc’. The Trade Act of 1974 provided for a procedure to lift the suspension, which became tied to the so-called Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the Trade Act. The president could annually waive the suspension of MFN for any respective country, provided that a bilateral trade agreement had been concluded and that the requirements of Jackson-Vanik were being met. Originally drafted in order to pressure the Soviet Union to either improve the situation and rights of minorities, or to grant them the right to emigrate, trade and human rights became connected following this amendment, as the presidential waiver was tied to calling on the trading partner to improve its domestic human rights situation. Congress was entitled to annually challenge the waiver through a joint resolution of both chambers, which the president would be able to veto. The veto, in turn, could be overruled by

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Fig. 4.4  US trade in goods with China as percentage of US GDP. (Sources: Trade data from the US Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, https:// www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5880.html (accessed 26 March 2015). GDP data from the US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, http://www.bea.gov/national/index.htm#gdp (accessed 26 March 2015). All figures in US Dollars and GDP are on a nominal basis, not seasonally adjusted)

a two-thirds majority in both chambers. The bilateral trade agreement between the USA and China entered into force in February 1980 and was subject to the annual renewal of MFN until 2000. MFN only became controversial following the violent ending of demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989 (Dumbaugh 1998, 1; Gagliano 2014, 137; cf. Kolkmann 2005, 102ff.; Xie 2009, 5, 101; Yang 2000, 17).10 This led to annual debates in Congress, which passed legislation to revoke MFN for reasons of ‘unfair trade’ and human rights twice in 1992, each time vetoed by President Bush whose veto was upheld in the Senate (cf. Gagliano 2014, 10  In 1989 itself, the process of MFN renewal took place without controversy, even though it happened after 4 June. Two sets of non-MFN-related sanctions were passed during that year, and the disputes over their broadening as well as over the China policy of the administration paved the way for future confrontations over MFN (Dumbaugh 1998, 5).

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152ff.; Xie 2009, 6, 109ff.; Yang 2000, 75ff.).11 A report to Congress characterized US-Chinese policymaking in the period 1989–1992 as rather confrontational, with Beijing generally unwilling to make policy concessions to the United States, President Bush unable to resume pre-Tiananmen ‘normal’ relations with China, and Congress increasingly frustrated by its lack of significant success in pressuring either China or the Bush Administration to change its policy approach.

Much of the US debate was carried out through the annual process of renewing MFN status (Dumbaugh 1998, 4). In 1993 President Clinton—who in his election campaign had criticized Bush for being ‘too soft’ on China’s human rights—used an executive order to make granting China MFN status conditional on explicit demands that it improve its human rights policies over the next 12 months. While the order granted MFN for a further year, it was not a waiver. A year later, however, Clinton officially ‘delinked’ MFN status and human rights by distancing himself from the earlier policy and renewing MFN status (Yang 2000, 113, 122f., 145). This does not mean that the USA did not enact punitive trade measures on China more generally. Nor did it end the debate on human rights. For instance, in 1995 the USA imposed 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods to the value of more than $1 billion, the largest imposition of US trade sanctions at the time (cf. Gagliano 2014, 143). On the question of China’s membership of the WTO, which had been under negotiation since 1986 when Beijing applied to resume its membership of GATT,12 there was no legal requirement for Congress to approve either the 1999 bilateral 11  In 1989–1995, 75 bills related to MFN status and China were introduced, compared to only four in 1973–1988. Since 1995 there have been an average of two bills annually, and in 1999–2001 the House voted each year on resolutions to disapprove of MFN renewal. Apart from in 1992, these were all defeated (Xie 2009, 109). On other vetoes by Bush against congressional China bills (four in late 1989 and early 1990), see Dumbaugh (1998, 6). 12  China, which was at that time under rule of the Guomindang (GMD), was among the 23 founding members of GATT in 1947. Japan joined in 1955. Following the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, the GMD government, which had fled to Taiwan, withdrew from GATT in 1950. Taiwan was granted observer status in 1965, which ended in 1971 after the United Nations recognized the PRC government as the sole representative of China in all UN bodies and institutions. When GATT was institutionalized as the WTO in 1995, negotiations with China on its GATT membership had not been concluded (cf. Kolkmann 2005, 90).

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agreement on China’s accession or the accession itself. However, if Congress had not granted China PNTR, the USA would have had to invoke a specific WTO clause (Article XIII) in order not to be in violation of its Article II on unconditional MFN for its members. This in turn meant that the conditions negotiated in the bilateral agreement would not have entered into force. In such circumstances, the USA would have been open to challenge by China at the WTO. Hence, Congress became a central actor in the PNTR issue (Xie 2009, 167, FN 5; cf. Kolkmann 2005, 105). Congress approved PNTR for China in 2000. This was preceded by intense debates and a presidential campaign in favour of PNTR (cf. Kolkmann 2005, 107ff.).13 China became a member of the WTO in December 2001. This did not end the discussions on China’s ‘unfair trade’ practices or on human rights, as Congress had established a commission in 2000 to monitor human rights practices in China, as well as a requirement for the US trade representative to submit an annual report on China’s WTO compliance (Xie 2009, 6, 66; cf. Gagliano 2014, 144f.) (Fig. 4.5).

Fig. 4.5  US trade deficits in trade in goods with Japan and China in billions of US dollars. (Source: Trade data from the US Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5880.html (accessed 26 March 2015). All figures in US Dollars are on a nominal basis, not seasonally adjusted) 13  In the same year, China replaced Japan as the largest deficit trading partner of the USA (Fig. 4.5).

CHAPTER 5

Nomination and Predication: Initial Articulations of Self and Other

The main topics in the economic discourses on Japan and China can be identified from the categories of perspectivation and argumentation, but are also reflected in how Self and Other are nominated and predicated. In the debates analysed, the nodal points develop around those aspects of the economic relationship that account for the dislocation of, or dislocatory effects on, US identity. This is most notably the unbalanced trade relationship, the alleged reasons for it and its consequences and the question of how to deal with it in an ‘effective’ way (cf. also i.e. Cohen et al. 1996, 175; Gagliano 2014, 136). In addition, and connected to this topic as a consequence of the evolution of the economic relationship, is the question of the standing of the USA vis-à-vis its main economic competitor (cf. Berger 1993; Uriu 2009, 243 f.), which is then linked to what it means for the global role of the USA. In line with these two major topics, which are red lines that remain constant over the entire period studied, the more general nominations and predications set out below do not change significantly over the time

Italics are used in Chaps. 5, 6, 7 and 8 for words and phrases taken directly from the source material. P = primary document; the number following, for example, P2, refers to the document number in the reference section; the number after the colon refers to the page number in the document. The list of all source material cited is included in the bibliography at the end of the book. © The Author(s) 2020 N. Nymalm, From ‘Japan Problem’ to ‘China Threat’?, Global Political Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44951-3_5

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period, but they do decrease in frequency when it comes to Japan and increase in relation to China.

5.1   The ‘Arrogant Japanese’ and ‘Communist China’ Versus a ‘Strong Ally’ and a ‘Big Economic Power’ The nominations and predications attributed to Japan and China show a ‘different degree of otherness’, or different articulations of difference, between the USA and Japan, and the USA and China. Examining them detached from their context of argumentation and perspectivation (but see also Chaps. 6, 7 and 8) above all reveals the perceived ‘ideological’ difference between Japan and China, which plays a crucial role in the articulation of economic competition as an identity challenge, especially in relation to China. China is rarely mentioned without the predication communist (e.g. P146:2; P125:53, 60; P192:2; P138:5, 44, 55; P207:10), which occurs 428 times in the documents on China. Frequent nominations for China are regime (e.g. P113:14; P125:88; P126:10) and dictatorship (e.g. P145:22), mostly together with communist (e.g. P124:2; P165:2; P125:53; P138:62) or alternatively rogue dictatorship (e.g. P145:2; P138:43), totalitarian dictatorship (e.g. P181:1; 138:40) and brutal/ vicious/corrupt dictatorship (e.g. P138:43, 55; P202:5). These types of nomination are more explicitly addressed under the category of intensification (see Chap. 8). More neutral expressions are state (e.g. P138:44; P175:12), country (e.g. P146:4) and nation (e.g. P125:69; P192:6), except when also used in connection with Red China (e.g. P175:17f.; P189:16) or Red Chinese (e.g. P134:8; P176:10), which again refer to China’s communism (cf. also Turner 2014, 4, 97ff.). China is also more figuratively described as the (Chinese) dragon (e.g. P146:5; P186:4), the sleeping dragon (P138:40) or the super dragon (P176:37), as a metaphor for China’s potential strength and power. (An equivalent for Japan would be e.g. land of the rising sun (P71:5), which in the first instance refers to a literal translation of the meaning of ‘Japan’.)1 Sometimes the leadership/government (e.g. P138:55; P125:60) is 1  Rising Sun was the title of a popular novel by Michael Crichton published in 1992, which was made into a film by Philip Kaufman in 1993. It deals with the Japanese industrial presence in the USA, ‘delivering Japan-bashing to the masses’ (cf. Morris 2010, 103ff.).

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deliberately differentiated from the Chinese people/the people of China (e.g. P125:58, 76), mostly to emphasize the ‘otherness’ of the government in terms of its ideology.2 Among the potentially accommodating nominations for China—floating signifiers that can become part of either a chain of equivalence or a chain of difference—are big economic power (e.g. P115:4), economic giant (e.g. P150:1), regional power (P112:3) and emerging superpower (e.g. P176:54), as well as economic partner (P143:6) and trading partner (P205:1)—but they also go beyond the economic sphere, such as with major world power (P188:2; P190:1). With Japan, there is no ‘obvious difference’ in the form of government or ideology—at least not at first sight. The most frequently used general nominations refer to Japan simply as Japan (e.g. P2:17; P5:37), the Japanese (P4:5; P14:30) or the citizens of Japan (e.g. P88:2), but sometimes also as Japan Inc. (e.g. P:28:4; P85:1; P87:2, see Chap. 6). Japan is articulated as ‘different’ from the USA according to personal characteristics. The predications, even when they are referring to the Japanese government, do not remain on that level but are frequently extended to ‘the Japanese character’ or ‘Japanese society’, whereas they remain mainly on an impersonal level with China. On the negative side, ‘the Japanese’ are repeatedly referred to as arrogant (P22:13; P63:19), intransigent (P22:13; P107:1), acting like a greedy child (P22:47), stubborn (P37:33), selfish (P42:33; P63:19), treacherous (P50:18), conspirative (P69:3), ruthless (P71:66), self-righteous and aggressive (P79:7; P93:37) or disingenuous (P:116:1). A distinction between government and people is made only to a limited extent; for example, [i]t is a country trying to break free from the bureaucratic shackles which have victimized its people and reduced its quality of life, shackles which have denied the public a voice in the governance of their country and a fair share of its considerable prosperity (P106:1, in 1994). This, as is conceded by the speaker, sounds more like a characterization of Russia or China, than of Japan. The ‘personal’ nominations and predications already highlight what was to become one of the main ‘explanations’ and perspectives on trade with Japan—that Japan is different culturally, societally and in character—which was then articulated as the ‘root cause’ of Japan’s economic policies and ensuing disputes with the USA.

2  On the government/people distinction, see also Gries (2014) and Hoenicke Moore (2015, 148) who call this ‘a long cherished liberal tenet of American democracy’.

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On a potentially positive or more accommodative note, Japan is referred to on both levels, but more on an impersonal than a personal level, as friend(s) (e.g. P71:10, 38), (strong/great) ally (e.g. P71:11, 38; P71:45; P73:149) and (trading)partner (e.g. P25:46; P97:3) or even as (big/ world) economic power (e.g. P72:1; P97:4; P115:4) and sometimes specified as the second-largest economy in the Free World (P27:7), second-largest economic power in the free world (P32:38; P56:8) or one of the three superpowers (P71:157). What in the case of China could be called the ‘master difference’ of ideology (liberal democracy vs.—by definition illiberal—communism) is more obvious or even self-evident. The nomination and predication ‘Communist China’ can be taken to stand for itself, as it conveys the major feature of China’s otherness in terms of ‘illiberalism’, as well as an evaluation in terms of deprecation, as hardly anyone in Congress would associate anything positive with communism.3 However, as will become clear under the categories that follow, the degree of otherness and othering; that is, how ‘different’ communist China is thought to be—depends on whether China is expected to change and evolve towards a (more) liberal form of government. With Japan, as the ‘negative’ characteristics are deemed ‘cultural’ and personal, the nominations and predications already indicate that less room for potential change is expected. In both cases, nominations such as ‘economic power’ can be articulated as part of a chain of equivalence or of a chain of difference, but also reflect heterogeneity as elements and floating signifiers.

5.2   ‘Our Nation’ and ‘the American People’ Versus ‘Uncle Sam’ and ‘Uncle Sucker’ The general nominations for the USA with respect to both Japan and China are our nation/we as a nation/this nation/the nation (e.g. P71:51, 117; P95:35; P121:4; P125:51; P95:35), America (e.g. P88:2), occasionally Americans/we as Americans (e.g. P2:17, P88:1) or the American people/the people of America (e.g. P39:48; P71:89; P95:21; P162:4; P176:50), which emphasize both the state and the citizen level. Very frequent use is 3  On congressional ‘antipathy’ towards communism, see Xie (2009, 111), and in the USA more specifically, for example, Turner (2014, 4, 97ff.), Doyle (1983a, 328) and Gries (2014, i.e. pp. 326). Chen focuses on ‘anticommunism’ as ‘ideology’ in US-China policy from 1949 to 1982 (Chen 1992).

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also made of Uncle Sam (e.g. P71:5, 100, 143; P130:1; P125:53; P136:39; P138:13), which is mostly (see Chaps. 6 and 7) meant in a self-­deprecating way in relation to the USA being economically outperformed by Japan and China. In some cases, this is explicit: Uncle Sam once again has become Uncle Sucker (P71:143). The latter nomination is also used as such (e.g. P95:21; P138:13), in the same way as sucker(s) (P136:40) or (good old) Uncle Sugar (e.g. P92:3), which often also refers to the good old American taxpayer (e.g. P95:21) or our taxpayers (e.g. P99:1) in criticisms of the administration and its policies having a negative effect on ‘the taxpayer’ in terms of causing unfavourable conditions on the US job market, or because the USA is bearing costs for Japan in the field of defence (see below). More intensive expressions in this context in relation to Japan are patsy (P5:37), losers (P29:33) or pussycat (P102:3) and in relation to China is a bunch of chumps (P138:3). The more specific nominations for the USA reflect the dislocation of US identity as the number one economy: in the case of Japan this is first and foremost about having become a net debtor in 1985 for the first time since World War I (e.g. Kilborn 1985). Accordingly, the most frequent nomination for the USA in relation to Japan is debtor (P4:5; P10:12; P27:12; P39:48; P53:8; P40:23; P77:4, 11; P68:6; P82:1; P83:22; P93:24; P100:5, 8; P109:2; 132:50), which occurred 93 times in the documents on Japan (see Chap. 6). It also comes up in relation to China (P133:78), although surprisingly not in 2008 (at least not in the documents retrieved) when the role of largest creditor shifted from Japan to China. With China, the more striking aspect of the dislocation is China’s economic success—also in terms of having become a creditor of the USA—in spite of being ‘communist’, at least in terms of still being ruled by the Chinese Communist Party.4 Thus, when it comes to articulating the difference with China, the USA is first and foremost nominated as the pre-­ eminent political, economic, military and ideological power in the world, or as (economic) superpower of the world (e.g. 143:3; P209:23) and the world’s strongest democracy (P149:6; P124:2). The USA in this line of articulation stands for freedom (P125:67; P186:1), free-market economics (P174:12; P132:54; P136:5; P143:9) and (global) leadership (P125:89; P174:11f., 17; P189:4). 4  In the debates analysed, there is no thorough discussion of or differentiation between ‘communist rule’ and ‘capitalist economy’, as emphasized in academic scholarship.

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In relation to Japan, the USA is also articulated as a free and fair trader (e.g. P40:13; P42:33; P73:127; P80:2) but also as the world’s only military, economic and political superpower (P112:1) or the world’s only complete superpower (P120:7). While with China the emphasis is on being a ‘democratic’ superpower, with Japan it is on being a ‘complete’ superpower, referring to the fact that Japan—because of its post-war constitution—lacked the ‘superpower component’ of military power. Both articulations are intended to emphasize an overall advantage of the USA, in spite of its economic underperformance, in terms of aiming to sustain its identity as global role model. At the level of personal differences in the economic realm, Americans as a people in contrast to ‘the Japanese’ are described as generous (P28:3; P42:35), compassionate people with a finely tuned sense of fair play—of right and wrong (P69:3), good guys (P42:37), trying to be good citizens in the world market, keeping our doors open in an attempt to expand world trade (P42:39), hopeful, big-hearted and idealistic toward the Japanese and others (P29:33), as greeting Japanese investment with encouragement and open arms (P80:2) and as tinkerers [and] people who use our ingenuity (P134:5f.). The latter two characterizations refer to the attributions of Japan’s markets as closed and the Japanese as ‘copiers of US technology’ (see Chaps. 6 and 7). Furthermore, in relation to Japan, the USA is characterized as making trade policy as foreign policy to help other countries get back on their feet (after World War II) (P198:8), or in terms of being the generous rebuilder of Japan (P49:15), which (see Chap. 7) refers to the US articulation of itself as not being treated in a suitable manner by its ally, Japan. These kinds of personal differences are not articulated vis-à-vis ‘the Chinese people’. This does not necessarily mean that Japan was seen as more different than China, however, but that Japan has exposed even greater heterogeneity in terms of having supposedly already become more like the ‘West’ and the USA, but then failed to fulfil expectations. From the US perspective, Japan’s ‘unclear’ or heterogeneous positioning made it necessary to articulate and emphasize its differences as explanation for its ‘deviance’ from the US model (cf. Rumelili 2012, 506 on liminality). This can also be seen in Chaps. 6, 7 and 8.

CHAPTER 6

Argumentation on the Main Topics: The Trade Deficit and the Challenge to US World Leadership

6.1   The Trade Deficit with Japan: ‘The Most Competitive Economy’ Versus ‘the Most Protectionist Country on Earth’ The main line of argumentation towards Japan between 1985 and 1995 was dominated, first, by the articulation of the trade deficit as a ‘root cause’ of US economic problems; and, second, by the search for explanations for the origins of and solutions to the deficit (cf. also Cohen et al. 1996, 175). The deficit accounts for the central challenge to/dislocation of US identity as the world’s most competitive nation/economy (e.g. P105:10, 238), leader of the free world (in the realm of trade) (P30:10; P73:29; P93:39; P132:18) and the advocator of free trade (P40:13; P42:33; P73:127; P80:2; P95:20; P120:7; P132:54f.; P140:2) and free competition (P83:9; P105:15, 234, 238; P107:2).1 Because of the trade deficit, the USA sees itself as having become the world’s largest debtor (P4:5; P10:12; P27:12; P39:48; P53:8;P40:23; P77:4, 11; P68:6; P82:1; P83:22; P93:24; P100:5, 8; P109:2; 132:50) and even a dumping ground (P10:12; P22:11; P28:2; P41:23). In consequence, it is argued, the USA 1  Italics are used in Chaps. 5, 6, 7 and 8 for words and phrases taken directly from the source material. P = primary document; the number following, for example, P2, refers to the document number in the reference section; the number after the colon refers to the page number in the document. The list of all source material cited is included in the bibliography at the end of the book.

© The Author(s) 2020 N. Nymalm, From ‘Japan Problem’ to ‘China Threat’?, Global Political Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44951-3_6

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experiences job losses and a decline in competitiveness and productive capacity (P4:4; P17:35; P27:8, 12, 50; P66:16, P71:36; P71:152; P74:1; P95:45; P115:1; P115:4; P121:3; 132:44, 87; cf. also Nanto 1992). The same line of argumentation can be seen with China in the following years and leading up to the Trump administration. A crucial question, and also one of the main dividing lines between ‘free traders’ and ‘hardliners’, is whether the trade deficit is the cause or effect of economic and other problems (cf. i.e. Cohen et al. 1996, 177). Japan as ‘Unfair’ In contrast to the USA as a free trader, Japan—sometimes denoted in terms of Japan Inc. (e.g. P:28:4; P85:1; P87:2), which mostly critically refers to Japan’s economic policies but was also used as a cultural metaphor for Japan’s success2—is articulated as protectionist(s) (e.g. P:68:46; P29:35; P42:40; P68:21; P92:28, P95:21, 26), the most protectionist country on earth/in world history (e.g. P42:28; P130:1), a (closed) mercantile/mercantilist country/nation/society (e.g. P73:127; P95:21, 37f.; P121:5), an unfair trader (e.g. P69:7; P30:10) and the worst case example of being unfair (P69:3; P71:161, 122;P72:1; P73:82; P84:10; P102:2f.; P107:1). Thus, it is argued that the major reason for the deficit throughout the period is Japan’s unfair trading practices (see Chap. 7). To many, the trade imbalances themselves were convincing evidence of the latter (Bown and McCulloch 2009, 670), a persistent argument also in the China case.3 ‘Unfair’ appears 255 times and ‘protectionist’ 102 times, as the most frequently used predications. The ‘unfairness’ throughout these years is first and foremost seen as Japan not playing by the rules of the free market and an open trading system (P25:46; P26:1; P27:11f.; P38:21; P39:48; P42:34; P64:34; P68:7, 22; P71:39; P71:63, 117; P73:142; P80:5; P107:1; P135:2; P198:9), while itself benefiting from it (P2:3; P18:42; P65:7; P66:16; P67:28; P69:2ff.; P73:143). Japan is seen as 2  ‘Japan Inc.’ came up occasionally in the 1930s, but more frequently after the 1970s. ‘Western’ commentators generally used it as part of the explanation for Japan’s economic success, referring to what was seen as a cooperative structure between Japanese companies, as well as their ‘protection’ by the government, especially the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). ‘Japan Inc.’ also referred to what was seen as Japan’s pursuit of economic success as its first priority (cf. Morris 2010, 23, 152). 3  On whether the frequency of references to ‘fairness/unfairness’ in the print media is connected to the size of the trade deficit, cf. Hummel (2000, 187).

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deliberately restricting access to Japanese markets for US products (P6:36; P13:30; P28:4; P34:7, 33; P68:9, 21; P105:112; P121:4; P129:1) while enabling not only more Japanese imports to the USA, but also unfair marketing prices by Japanese companies in the US (P13:30; P68:20; P73:32; P85:2; P89:16; P101:2; P105:19; P151:11ff.). This is referred to in the designation of the USA as a dumping ground. Moreover (see 5.1), throughout the period studied Japan in this context is once again referred to in more personal terms, for example, as having a greed-filled (power elite) (P85:5), bureaucrats (P27:50; P40:13; P42:30; P63:19; P104:3f.; P122:2), as having a habit of agreeing in principle to an issue and then seeking to renegotiate it until [it gets] what [it] want[s] (P22:11), as offering lame excuses (P27:50), screwing us (P31:37), not giving up anything (P47:47), engaging in one-way trade (P56:8), cheating (their consumers) (P68:43; P132:14), capitalizing on our generosity (P71:83), being single minded (P71:104) and not interested in fair trade (P71:48). In addition, Japan is characterized as taking advantage of us (P71: 122), all take and no give (P:72:1), refusing to trade on an equal playing field (P73:31), adept at finding opportunities to deviate from agreements (P84:13), obsessed with money (P85:1), as an equal opportunity protectionist (P92:28), insensitive to the relationship with us [… and] with the rest of the world (P93:7) and as employing a double standard (P103:1). These lines of argumentation reflect the chains of equivalence towards Japan, which aim to articulate Japan in its ‘unfairness’ as fundamentally different from the USA. The chains of equivalence emphasize the exclusive or confrontational features of US identity as the role model and therefore the number one economy in terms of American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history. Cancelling out any internal differences or ambiguities requires an empty signifier, which stands for the lack or ‘problem’ within/for the in-group for which the out-group is made responsible. ‘Fairness’ becomes the central empty signifier and the ‘lack of fairness’ the central ‘problem’. The signifier is literally empty when referring to Japan,  as fairness is literally present only through its absence, that is by being articulated through its opposite, ‘unfairness’, and the other characterizations that equally stand for, or evoke, unfairness (i.e. protectionist, mercantilist, greedy, all take no give etc.). On the other hand, there are voices that seek to weaken the potential antagonisms. The chains of difference account for the inclusive/accommodating traits of US ‘liberal’ identity. Japan is also referred to as a friend (e.g. P71:10, 38), a (strong/great) ally (e.g. P71:11, 38; P71:45; P73:149)

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and a (trading) partner (e.g. P25:46; P97:3), and the relationship is seen as endangered (P17:35; P25:47; P27:7; P28:3; P34:7; P38:33; P68:13; P73:145; P106:1) because of the trade deficit, and the growing public resentment towards Japan (P2:17; P79:2, 5; P140:2), partly resulting from the deficit (cf. also Nanto 1992, 2). Already in the mid-1980s, there were warnings about the return of US protectionism (P30:10; P40:13) and of Smoot-Hawley (P21:11f.),4 in response to the trade deficit, in line with caution about making Japan a single scapegoat (P27:9). Instead, these expressions called for ‘putting our own house in order’ and not seeking to externalize problems through trade protectionism and cautioned against the mistaken impression in Congress that changes in the trade policy would turn around the deficit (P52:30) (see below). The latter statement is an important argument on the more balanced side of the debate and is also voiced in connection with China. Even if Japan, and later China, were to fundamentally alter their trading practices—regardless of whether they actually were ‘unfair’—it would not have a significant impact on the trade deficit, unless the USA engaged in reform of its economic policies on a broader scale (Kunkel 2003, 53, 71). Invoking Smoot Hawley in this context was the negative metaphor for protectionism at the time; it was ‘an image as powerful in the foreign economic sphere as that of Munich in the political-military sphere’ (cf. Mastanduno 1992, 239).5 Self-Criticisms: ‘Putting Our Own House in Order’ The calls to ‘put our own house in order’ had two sides: self-criticism in terms of partly giving in to the dislocation or blaming the administration (and sometimes others within Congress) for its inadequate handling of pressing issues, thereby articulating internal chains of equivalence. In terms of being a ‘defensive hegemonic strategy’, it does not necessarily weigh out the differences vis-à-vis the outside, but accounts for a shift in

4  The so-called 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act raised tariffs on imports into the USA by an average of 52 per cent. It is attributed with being one of the major causes of the economic depression of the 1930s and the ensuing political climate that led up to World War II (Goldstein 1993, 125f.; Kolkmann 2005, 37; Kunkel 2003, 28). 5  ‘Munich’ stands negatively for the policy of appeasement and refers to the 1938 Munich Conference where the UK and France failed to challenge Germany’s partial annexation of Czechoslovakia in the hope of preventing a major war in Europe.

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the lines of argumentation and exposes heterogeneity as a mutual contamination of equivalence and difference. Especially in the mid-1980s, the administration is called out for its allegedly poor handling of economic policy. It is argued that it is not standing up to Japan (P1:3; P3:4; P4:6; P11:19; P40:13; P42:38, 40; P50:40; P61:19; P68:7f.; P71:66, 117; P73:125; P82:4; P84:5; P95:47; P127:1) and practically inciting Japan to continue with its ‘unfair trade’ (P13:12; P16:44; P27:50; P29:35; P46:49; P68:21). The trade deficit is articulated as the result of substantially failed domestic politics (P8:3; P9:11; P68:29; P89:18), such as neglecting the impact of the high exchange rate on the economy (P2:17; P6:36; P16:45; P21:11; P24:1; P25:47; P50:3; P68:11, 15), which is seen as resulting from the increasing federal deficit and increased spending (P2:17; P6:36; P8:3; P27:7; P30:10; P50:3; P52:30; P53:7; P77:4; P109:4).6 In the mid-1990s one of the central debates on dealing with the trade deficit was whether numerical targets,7 in terms of a ‘results-oriented trade policy’ (Reifman 1989; cf. i.e. Schoppa 1997, 258), could be the solution (P106:2; P107:1), or whether this would in fact lead to the USA itself managing trade (P106:4), which conflicted with US identity as a free trader, an argument exposing heterogeneity that became prominent as part of the internal chains of equivalence.8 A CRS report on Japanese investment stated ‘that concern over Japanese investments in US businesses, whether warranted or not, has the potential to undermine the historical US position as the champion of the free international flow of investment and goods’ (Jackson 1990, 30). A later report on trade explained the central difference between the philosophies of a ‘free market’ versus ‘managed trade’: in a free market, ‘as long as the rules for entry and subsequent market activities are fair, the outcome must be fair’. With managed trade, however, ‘an outcome can be unfair even if the process is fair, because results are affected not only by market access and rules but by  See note 3 on Plaza Accords in Chap. 4.  The precedent was set for a move away from a process-oriented and towards a resultsoriented approach to market access by the 1986 Semiconductor Agreement, but had already been advocated by the Commerce Department and the USTR prior to the MOSS talks in 1985 (cf. Schoppa 1997, 71). 8  There had already been a debate on ‘managed trade’ within the administration in the mid-1980s, when the Reagan administration, facing harsher attitudes from Congress, became more assertive towards Japan (cf. Schoppa 1997, 67, 71). The debate continued under Bush in the early 1990s. 6 7

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past practices, perceptions, or advantages of existing positions’ (Nanto 1992, 14). The three main observations behind the ‘managed trade’ approach overlapped with revisionist positions. First is that Japan’s economy and society are different from those of other industrialized nations in the world, and thus Japan requires different policies. Second, Japan’s government plays a greater role in the operations of individual companies than the US government does. Third, the style of negotiations was harming the overall relationship with Japan, which called for other ways to resolve bilateral differences (Nanto 1992, 16). The third point was not of primary concern to the revisionists, who advocated a hardline approach to Japan. The report concludes: ‘although managed trade is presented as a new approach to trade disputes, it essentially would be a system of government-­ administered trade targets and quotas.’ Most economists believed that these could lead to inefficiencies and distortions of trade with third countries (Nanto 1992, 16). When it came to the debate on possible restrictions on the import of Japanese car parts in 1995, plenty of criticism was voiced of the administration from a free trade perspective: The restrictions would violate the US commitment to free trade (P120:2, 6), threaten jobs in the country (P120:3) and—while being politically popular—might create the potential for a serious trade war (P120:4, 6; P127:1f.) and leave the USA stand[ing] against our allies and trading partners (P120:6). In this line of argumentation, the ultimate ‘superiority’ of the USA is emphasized, for instance, by arguing that, provided there is truly free trade, American industries don’t need protection, they need competition (P174:10). In opposition to this—and in another parallel with the debates on ‘free trade’ with China—free trade as a policy and principle is criticized in terms of being articulated as a Western myth that no longer fits the New World Order (P166:1; also already called ‘an ideology’ earlier, see P20:37), as economic policies should relate less to broader foreign policy goals (like after WWII), but follow American interests (P173:3; P174:13). This later becomes a central idea behind President Trump’s ‘America first’ approach. From an economic perspective, the dividing line between the ‘free trade—good relations’ and the ‘hardline—Japan is different’ coalitions9 9  Those who advocated an accommodation with Japan were also called the ‘Japan lobby’ or the ‘Chrysanthemum club’ and juxtaposed with ‘Japan bashers’ (Kunkel 2003, 55; Morris 2010, 50). In the case of China, the ‘equivalent’ terms are the ‘China lobby’ or ‘Panda huggers’ versus ‘China bashers’ or ‘dragon slayers’ (cf. i.e. Gries 2014, 331).

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ran along the free traders’ view that the ‘Japan problem’ was either a political problem or a macroeconomic problem ensuing from US economic policies and not caused by Japan’s trade barriers. In any case, free trade was seen as the best policy, as it was argued that the USA would lose from restrictive actions against Japan. Any Japanese barriers were to its own disadvantage, while the bilateral trade deficit did not actually affect US economic prosperity. Even an opening up of the Japanese market would have had only a minimal impact on the trade deficit, unless it went hand in hand with changes to US macroeconomic policies such as on savings, investment and exchange rates. The hardliners in turn argued that ‘free trade’ with Japan would not work, as in its structural barriers to imports Japan was seen as different from other advanced economies. They argued that Japan’s low rates of domestic demand and consumption, external surpluses and import barriers were incompatible with its increasing international economic responsibilities, given the size of its economy. Japan’s protectionism was seen in its tariffs, non-tariff barriers and industrial policy (Kunkel 2003, 53, 71).10 In 1997, in connection with the slow-down in the Japanese economy and the debates about ‘fast track negotiation authority’ (since 2002 known as Trade Promotion Authority, TPA),11 free trade as a key US principle is praised again in Congress. Coming close to the liberal theory of history arguments and perspective in relation to China, it is argued not only that world trade was the most important contribution of America in the post-­ World War II period, but also that it stopped communism in Europe, […] rebuilt Japan […], won the cold war […], and set more people free than any victory in any war in the history of mankind (P132:11, 18). The USA is seen as dominating world markets (P132:13) and the Japanese economy as on its back (cf. also Uriu 2009, 242), and it is argued that 10  This view was rooted in broader theories on the changing structure of international trade since the 1980s, according to which the government should intervene in markets and economic processes to enhance competitiveness and to counter ‘unfair’ trade practices. ‘Free trade’ would only work if it was ‘fair’ in terms of being ‘reciprocal’ (cf. Paulsen 1999, 34, 37, 40, 53; see also Schoppa 1997, 70). 11  According to the 1974 Trade Act, the Fast Track mechanism granted the president the right to negotiate and conclude trade agreements while keeping Congress and the respective committees informed. Congress could approve the agreement without any changes or reject it in total within 60 days. Until the 1990s Congress regularly granted and extended the Fast Track mechanism for the prescribed three years, but in 1994 President Bill Clinton failed to get approval (cf. Kolkmann 2005, 40). President George W. Bush was granted TPA in 2002–2007 and President Barack Obama from 2015.

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government-dominated trade fails and the marketplace succeeds (P132:14). Opponents were critical of being labelled protectionists when challenging fast track, because of the still existing and growing trade deficits with both Japan and China (P132:44, 46). They wonder whether the USA will have the same ‘problems’ with China as with Japan (P155:7; P132:79, 87; P133:17ff.; P135:4): If the United States simply accepts Japanese intransigence, how will it succeed in opening markets in China – […] – or in other mercantilist countries? (P108:3); and if the United States insists on open markets in Japan, how about China? We have the same circumstance with China. […] Exploding trade deficit, but no decisive action by the United States (P164:2).12 In this respect, again exposing heterogeneity and the ambiguities of equivalence and difference in Congress, the USA in general is also characterized as a paper tiger (P4:5), naive (P29:34) and (therefore) not very daring, decent and fair to our own people (P29:33) and weak when it comes to trade issues (P71:77–119). It is claimed that in consequence the USA is being taken for a ride again by the Japanese (P93:40), is inept in handling our trade relations with Japan (P95:48), and that the USA was suffering from a decline in self-esteem [that] puzzles both our allies and rivals (P109:2). On the one hand, it is argued that these consequences were the fault of wimpy diplomats (P73:55), but also that Congress itself has been a bunch of wimps (P130:1), and that it has not had the courage and the guts to stand and say to our friends, ‘Do what is right’ (P92:30, 33). These articulations are connected to arguments about having emphasized safeguarding the bilateral relationship in terms of the broader political picture, to the detriment of the field of trade policy. Contrastingly, Japan is articulated as the only country in the world that will come away from the negotiating table with us 100 percent of the time with 100 percent of what was on the table (P93:31). As shown, there remain ambiguities in both the external and the internal chains of equivalence and difference when it comes to arguments about the unfairness of Japan in relation to the role of US policies on the trade deficit. An attempt to deal with these ambiguities, and suppress

12  While the trade deficit with Japan had fallen from $65.7 billion in 1994 to $47.6 billion in 1996, China’s surplus was steadily rising, from $10 billion in 1990 to $83.8 billion in 1999 (see Figure 4.5), which was also the first year in which China’s surplus surpassed that of Japan (Uriu 2009, 242).

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heterogeneity, can be seen in the argument that Japan is ‘different’ in a cultural and societal sense. Japan as ‘Different’: A Reason for Confrontation? Attempts to explain what looks like a US disadvantage in economic competition with Japan focus on Japan’s alleged ‘unfairness’ as cemented in its cultural and societal difference (P73:135, referring to Clyde Prestowitz). This kind of argumentation is intended to foster chains of equivalence, weaken internal differences and suppress heterogeneity by essentializing Japan’s difference because there is ‘nothing to be done about it’, and it is too deeply ingrained to possibly change. Some of these characterizations appear in the 1980s, before the high tide of revisionism within the Clinton administration in the early 1990s. Referring to differences in the economy, it is argued that the Japanese are playing by a different set of rules (P25:46; P27:11; P69:3), planning their economy (P71:39) and even not playing by the same rule book as Western nations (P121:5). The Japanese system, with its structural barriers and government intervention is articulated as different from any other in the world (P86:1). That the Keiretsu-system [… is] incompatible with the principles of free international trade (P122:1, 3)13 is emphasized, and the Japanese economy in general is characterized as a cosy, interlocking system of cartels that excludes others (P80:3). The structure of the Japanese economy is described as facilitating horizontal agreements and cartel-like behavior (P34:9) and as completely export-oriented (P74:2, 7), to the detriment of Japanese consumers. In this view, Japan does not have a ‘consumer culture’ like the USA, but in Japan the customer comes last (P73:49; P88:1ff.; P93:16; P93:37; P104:4) as they are measuring the strength of a nation not by what it can consume but by what it can produce (P132:52).14 In a debate on the Lack of Japanese Consumer Culture it is argued that

13  The 1992 CRS report highlights an exaggeration on the US side regarding perceptions of keiretsus that ‘conjured images in the American psyche of giant monopolies or cartels long outlawed in the United States’ (Nanto 1992, 1). 14  See also Huntington, who articulates Japan’s ‘producer dominance’ as one component of its ‘strategy of economic power maximation’ (Huntington 1993, 73). Therefore, ‘among the industrialized nations Japan is unique in the extent to which it gives priority to economic power over economic well-being’ (ibid.), which is in line with other ‘Japan is different from the West’ arguments.

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America’s tradition has […] been one where those obtaining wealth are, and feel obligated, to insure the welfare of society as a whole. In Japan, a country with vastly different, if not contrary ideas, this is simply not the case. […] It results in an intricate web of price supports, tax subsidies, special benefits, targeted incentives, discretionary guidelines, and the like. In short, a perfect environment for favoritism, patronage, influence peddling, bribery and extortion. (P88:1f.)

In addition, when speaking about Japan’s aggressive export expansion and […] resolute resistance to imports other than raw materials into its own domestic market, it is claimed that the strategy is deeply infused into the procedures of the Japanese Government and the behavior of the Japanese people (P68:9). This relates to arguments about differences in Japanese society and culture that were being made already in the mid-1980s: the Japanese at home […] have a very different structured society. I do not know that we anymore would like the structured, planned, highly controlled society of an out and out Socialist economy (P18:47). Import barriers are viewed as government-­imposed but also as cultural (P76:2), as the Japanese have a different mentality and cultural constraints (P58:3), resistant cultural attitudes (P32:38) and a self-image that allows imports of raw materials, but of the fewest foreign manufactures possible (P32:38), with a cultural background and history [from which] it has long been understood that they must trade to survive (P42:30). Although Japan was generally viewed as one of the OECD nations, it was argued that if Japan were a normal capitalist nation, it would not view its trade surplus as an indication of its superiority over the West (P93:14). Another common allegation is also the ‘collectivism’ of the Japanese, as when Japan is articulated as an adversary whose people are conservative, traditional, homogenous and emphasizing the group rather than the individual (P73:49).15 In contrast to Americans, the Japanese are characterized as worried about the future and wary of risk, cautious about spending (P58:3), but also as focusing on the long term and not on the short term like the USA (P73:12). Thus, Americans do not think the way the Japanese think. We do not take the long-range view (P73:154, see also P69:2; P166:1) and—according to a Japanese professor cited in the debates on the ‘fairness’ argument—the American predisposition to view things in simplistic 15  ‘Collectivism’ was also one of the most common attributions in the scholarly literature on Japan at that time, see, for example, Gilpin, Kennedy and Lipset. For a critique, see Campbell (1994).

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black-and-white terms is antithetical to [the Japanese mindset] (P69:2). In a negative way, this is translated into the Japanese not having a sense of absolute right or wrong (P69:3). In consequence, it is argued either that these differences require new approaches to a unique problem (P31:38) or that it is the overall policy of Japan that has to be changed (P56:2). In this respect, again as internal chains of equivalence—and this is a similarity with the debates on free trade with China—it is argued that Western misconceptions concerning the Nature of the Japanese challenge have to be understood by the USA in order not to continue the self-imposed handicap of doctrinal adherence to inapplicable free-trade theories (P69:2; P71:8; P73:153f.). Nonetheless, it is also emphasized that the Japanese themselves were using the difference argument to maintain trade barriers, as in that they should stop coming up with explanations for why their system is unique (P42:33) and using the uniqueness argument […] to keep out our commercial goods (P73:82; P73:127; P42:31).16 In contrast to these characterizations of Japan and ‘the Japanese’, the USA and US people are described as willing to take risks, big spenders (P58:3), treating the customer as king (P73:49) and as having a sense of right and wrong that the Japanese allegedly lack (P69:3). However, here too we see heterogeneity as both self-criticism as well as internal chains of equivalence, as other US characteristics are voiced as unfavourable: always looking at short term advantages and in the worst case just giving up the oven (P73:12), by placing a great deal of concern on the diplomatic impact [of trade policies] (P71:61), while—in contrast to Japan—not having realized that our economic strength is our national security and that trade is a major pillar of our economic well-being (P73:50). By articulating Japan as ‘different’ not only from the USA, but from ‘the Western world’ in general, the ground on which the USA is purportedly standing vis-à-vis Japan is extended, while also augmenting the range of the problem to concerning not just the USA—in terms of universalizing a particular claim or demand. This was, for instance, a central argument of the negotiators in the Bush administration during the SII talks. They articulated Japan as ‘different’ and out of step with the advanced industrialized economies of the time and as a threat to the GATT-based

16  There was indeed a vast field of literature known as ‘Nihonjinron’, ‘discourses on Japaneseness’, which attempted to define the uniqueness of Japan. It was very popular in the 1970s and 1980s in and outside Japan (cf. Thorsten 2012, 96).

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trading system (cf. Mastanduno 1992, 255).17 Furthermore, this kind of argumentation is intended to foster chains of equivalence in terms of essentializing Japan’s difference as there is ‘nothing to be done about it’, because in this view the difference is cultural and societal, and hence too deeply infused to possibly change.18 This was an important argument of the revisionists and, as a consequence, they argued that the USA had to change its policies to become more confrontational, concretely demanding and insisting on ‘objective criteria’ or ‘numerical targets’. In this sense, emphasizing the ‘difference’ of Japan is in line with reacting to and suppressing heterogeneity and articulating a US identity that does not give the Other room for manoeuvre or to change.

6.2   Japan as a Competitor, and ‘World (Economic) Power’? This topic reflects the second main component of the dislocation or challenge to US identity linked to the economic development of Japan: the question of what this might mean for the USA as a ‘global superpower’ beyond the economic realm, answers to which again exposed heterogeneity when it comes to constructing Self and Other. On the neutral to accommodating side, Japan and the USA are praised for standing together at the forefront of the free nations and free economies of the world (P67:28) after the flower of friendship between our countries blossomed upon a battlefield (P67:29). ‘Rising Japan’ is nominated as a (big/world) economic power (e.g. P72:1; P97:4; P115:4), maturing economy (P68:43), a world leader [and] economic and financial superpower (P77:8; see also P83:12; P91:1; P118:2, P63:19), as well as the newest superpower (P100:4), sometimes specified as the second-largest Free World economy/economic power in the free world (P27:7; P32:38; P56:8) or one of the three superpowers (P71:157). In this sense of resemblance of the USA, Japan is also articulated as a crucial/important/valuable/good ally (P2:17; P38:20; P42:38, P83:9, 12; P86:1), friendly neighbor (P4:5), (important) 17  For instance, IPE scholar Robert Gilpin wrote that ‘the uniqueness of Japan increases the difficulties of integrating that dynamic and important nation into the larger world economy’ (Gilpin 2003, 300, 306–308). 18  While differences, for example, in negotiation style and in business conventions certainly existed, it is their inscription as fixed and essential characteristics with negative or adversarial connotations that amounts to ‘othering’.

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friend (P71:10; P84:3), a democratic success story, a nation of hard-­working, talented people who can bring progress to all Asia (P31:37; P83:9), as America’s major economic partner (P97:3; P127:1), as one of the two engines (with China) driving the economic future of the Asia-Pacific region (P113:3), and as seeking appropriate world responsibilities (P91:1). The ‘root cause’ of the dislocation however emanates from the economic realm, with Japan evolving from being conceived as ‘only’ a competitor (P44:170  in 1985), into the principal economic rival (P64:35  in 1985) and progressing to the second greatest industrial power (P65:7 still in 1985), a technological superpower (P73:8 in 1989), the wealthiest nation in the world (P77:6 in 1989) and finally the most technologically advanced nation with seemingly unlimited horizons (P100:4 in 1989). In this line of argumentation, this is first and foremost connected to Japan having become the world’s largest creditor/number one creditor country (P93:24; P97:1; P100:1, 4) and a potential world power because of the foreign policy leverage of its overwhelming financial strength (P118:2). Japan is seen as a (tightfisted) economic giant (P83:28; P63:19), the fiercest competitor on the globe (P93:23) and even a new economic enemy (P91:8; cf. also Nanto 1992). The equivalential/confrontational voices see Japan as having an export-­ or-­die mentality (P85:3), as an economic imperialist (P88:1) and determined to have market dominance (P92:24; P79:2). It is argued that Japan is pursuing political aims through its economic endeavor, as administrators in industry and government take it for granted that Japan should become ever more invincible in the face of a potentially hostile world (P79:5, 7). Japan is attributed with being aware of its economic impacts and economic power—in contrast to the USA which is articulated as considering the diplomatic impact, on the one hand, and military power, on the other (P71:61, 63)—while the Japanese are defining their national security in terms of industrial competitiveness (P73:12; P83:28) and associating economic strength with national security (P73:50). This line of reasoning is in line with the revisionist view that maintained that Japan had a particular strategy to build up its overall standing through its economic policies (e.g. Huntington 1993) by targeting certain industries to the detriment of the USA.19

19  While Japan’s economic rise, especially in the early years, was to a large extent built on its strength in exporting, it was not as ‘closed’ as was argued by the hardliners. The CRS report states that ‘while Japan still maintains some notorious border barriers, particularly the

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US Relations with Japan One of the consequences of Japan’s economic rise, given the size and strength of the Japanese economy, according to the position that aims to articulate chains of equivalence, is that Japan’s special responsibility to open up its markets is frequently voiced (P34:7; P42:29; P91:4, 6; P92:27). It is argued that Japan should act as the no. 2 economic power in the world (P92:27) and play an enlightened role in global leadership more generally (P97:4; P113:3). Japan is criticized for failing to live up to its world responsibility (P42:29; P56:8; P65:7) and accused of nurturing a semi-­ dependent attitude towards the United States (P52:30). This is regarded as unfair, as no other country has allegedly benefited more from the international economic system (P65:7): as a long-time beneficiary of the free-­ trading system maintained largely by the United States […] Japan ought to be taking leadership in […] opening its markets and its business practices so that the rest of the world can benefit from the Japanese miracle as well (P77:8). This argument recurs later with China. Japan, however, by only pursuing its commercial advantage (P71:40), takes advantage of the international marketplace, [while] protecting its own industries (P107:2), in spite of the Japanese being no fragile flower anymore but big boys (P93:42), they present themselves as the victim of ‘US protectionism’ or criticism (P119:1).20 This line of reasoning is related to historical arguments about the USA paying for Japan’s defence (P73:53;  see Chap. 7) and thus enabling its economic success21 and about Japan not behaving like a proper ally (P73:55f.; P92:30):22 Since the end of World War II, we have done everything possible to help rebuild Japan’s economy and transform her into a world economic power, and she has become the worst offender in fair trading import quota on rice, most of the rest are similar to those in other industrialized nations of the world’ (Nanto 1992, summary). 20  ‘Fragile flower’ alludes to gendered portrayals of Japan as ‘feminine’ in terms of being weak and vulnerable after World War II, especially vis-à-vis ‘Communist China’ (cf. Dower 2001, 311). 21  See also, for example, Kennedy (1988, 459). A counter-argument was that Japanese investment in the USA helped finance defence expenditure (cf. Gilpin 1987, 332). 22  See also Morris (2010, 25). In connection with this is a different line of argumentation that figures in the debates on China too, although in relation to a different context: the USA as ‘guide’ for Japan (and China) towards ‘liberal democratic capitalism’. Because of Japan’s imperialist history in Asia, it would be better for the USA to stay involved and that Japan did not develop the capabilities to become a military power once again (P92:10; P93:3, 8ff.).

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­practices of any nation today (P72:1). Japan is called out as a supposed ally (P73:55) and is also articulated as the world’s first economic superpower without military power (P91:6), which does not fit with expectations of or understandings about a ‘great power’ (see i.e. Berger 1993). In terms of articulations that attempt to sustain and maintain US identity in relation to this topic, the USA is first and foremost articulated as a world power (P13:12; P47:48; P97:4; P100:4; P174:12), the world’s only military, economic, and political superpower (P112:1), the world’s only complete superpower (P120:7), healthier and better prepared to move into the 21st century than the Japanese economy (P120:3) and as a great promise [and] the leading nation (P143:2). By the end of the 1980s, however, it is also argued that the USA should think of national security in terms of economic security (P71:63, 105, 161) and as economics and trade as equivalent to power and influence (P74:8; see also P77:5; P96:3; P132:52) in terms of financial power (P77:5f.). In addition, the USA needs a proactive economic and commercial strategy (P73:148) in order to prevent a dramatic erosion of our economic standing in the world (P71:152; P74:1) and jeopardizing US-leadership in world affairs (P77:16; P78:3). This is one of the major debates to emerge after 1989 (cf. also Kolkmann 2005, 42)—not only, but especially, in relation to Japan. It was argued that with the end of the Cold War, the USA could and should stop prioritizing the political or security-related aspects of the relationship with Japan and focus instead on economic issues. This line of argumentation became especially prominent during the Clinton presidency after 1992—but had its precedents during the Presidency of George H.  W. Bush (cf. Schoppa 1997, 70)—as Clinton placed the importance of economic policies and issues more generally at the heart of his political agenda. Economic performance was articulated as a basis for continuing US worldwide leadership (cf. Paulsen 1999, 32f., 46), a persistent understanding aligned with American exceptionalism.23 The pessimistic outlook was thus connected to the USA losing its creditor status and becoming a debtor (P77:4; P132:50), and even a second class power (P109:2), and in this respect also to the increasing ownership of 23  The reasoning was that after the end of the ideological competition between the USA and the Soviet Union, economic competition would become the main issue in international relations, and ‘national security’ would have to be redefined in economic terms. This meant a focus on the strength of the economic sector and performance in general (in terms of GDP, exports and employment rates), as well as on industrial and technological capabilities as a foundation for defence and security (ibid.).

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foreigners in the United States [that] is likely to result in some loss of control over our own destiny (P77:16; P82:2ff., see Chap. 7). On the other hand, it was claimed in 1994 that the USA was still the world’s only military, economic and political superpower, which must therefore lead (P112:1), for instance, when it comes to transforming a command economy into a free market economy (in this particular example in the case of Russia, P112:2f.), and, to a different extent in the case of Japan, as Japanese domestic industry [is] virtually closed to foreigners and will remain closed unless we, as a nation, force them to open it (P121:4).

6.3   The Trade Deficit with China: ‘Free Trade’ Versus ‘Unfairness’ As with Japan, one of the main lines of argumentation towards China across the entire time frame centred on articulating the trade deficit as the ‘problem’, or the main cause of the USA’s economic issues, and the ‘explanation’ first and foremost as China’s unfairness. Similarly, the trade deficit accounts for the major dislocation of US identity in terms of American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history for three main reasons. First, there are the negative consequences for the US economy, which are similar to the Japan case. The second goes beyond the economic realm and is linked to the global standing of the USA as the most powerful economy (P137:32; P195:40; P209:1; P210:2) and the world’s free trade leader/ model for free and fair trade (e.g. P146:5; P136:5) that plays by the rules and is the most transparent, most honest, most basic system in the world (P209:23), which can compete with anyone provided that competition is fair and on a level playing field (P211:2; P205:4). Third, there is China’s lack of political liberalization, which contradicts the liberal theory of history. China as Unfair The economic relationship between the USA and China is first and foremost criticized for the trade deficit (P114:5; P115:4; P125:51; P132:44; P133:78; P176:5, 50; P201:5; P141:34; P214:1) and China’s ‘unfairness’ (P115:1; P125:63, 72; P132:87, 99; P133:19; P175:14; P176:38; P202:4; P142:34; P207:3, 7; cf. also Gagliano 2014, 136) but also, after around 2000 and especially since 2005, the manipulation of its currency

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(P136:39; P141:2; P142:34f.; P205:8ff.; P207:7, 17; P208:1f.; P212:1).24 With China the focus on its ‘unfairness’ (‘unfair’ comes up 154 times in the documents on China) lies less on finding its ‘origins’ as it does in the ‘cultural difference’ arguments relating to Japan. It seems more obvious because China is still transforming its economy, but also because China’s communism makes it ‘unfair by definition’. Because of the trade deficits, China is regarded as one of [the USA’s] most difficult trade policy challenges (P169:2), whose manipulation of trade (P113:14), discriminatory and unfair trade practices (P126:4; P172:2) […] make the Japanese look like proponents of Adam Smith and free trade (P125:65). Like Japan, it is alleged that all they want is the money (P126:4, 9), while they consistently fail to live up to the terms of [their] trade agreements (P178:2; P136:86, 100), frustrate US companies (P136:100), are cheating and not keeping [their] word with trade obligations (P205:5) as Chinese leaders say one thing and do another (P137:18), and as China is a country that manipulates its currency (P211:1f.). In contrast to the nominations and predications on Japan under this topic, the ones on China stay within, or at least closer to, the ‘economic vocabulary’, as opposed to those on Japan that are on a more personal level. As with Japan, it is furthermore argued that China is making promises that it does not keep (P145:11; 195:5) and that it maintains trade barriers (P146:4; P175:21; P183:1; P188:5; P193:6), while being the source of cheap imports into the USA (167:66; P133:18; P207:17). China is seen as conducting mercantilist policies that are anti-­ American and predatory (P186:1ff.) and—already more intensely—as (in this case along with New Zealand, the European Union and the old Soviet Union) posing a tremendous threat, as all of these nations are trying to take a piece of our economy. They want our jobs and our well-being to transmit to their country (P144:10), which is why we must be accurate in how we assess the current threats to our economy, or we will not be able to sustain the American way of life (P144:11). Other countries thriving at the expense of the USA later became a frequent assertion of President Trump. 24  When it comes to evaluating whether the Chinese currency was or is undervalued, most economists agree that this was the case between 2003 and 2013, but criticize the Trump administration’s move to officially invoke that label—for the first time since 1994—in 2019 (Swanson 2019). Scholars also emphasize, however, as when it comes to the trade deficit, that the negative consequences for the US economy were and are not as straightforward as is maintained by the hardliners who call for retaliation. They must be seen in connection with structural and macro-economic factors (Evenett 2010; Keidel 2011; Moran 2015; cf. i.e. Morrison and Labonte 2011); see also Nymalm (2013).

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Like with Japan, these arguments on China’s unfairness serve to build up chains of equivalence around the empty signifier ‘fairness’—which, as with Japan, is present through its literal absence in the presence of ‘unfairness’—by articulating the lack of fairness and its consequences, first and foremost the trade deficit, as a problem that has to be dealt with. To emphasize its urgency, arguments such as being unable to sustain the American way of life are made, and the ‘bad example’ of Japan is invoked, while claims are made that the situation with China is even more critical. On the other hand, there are also attempts to sustain US identity in terms of denying the challenge. When it comes to dealing with ‘unfair China’, the USA is articulated as having leverage over China, not least because of the power of the American purse, which everybody wants to do business with (P145:3). According to this line of argumentation, US trade policy could and should also work as a stick in the form of section 301 investigations (P149:10).25 Similarly, it is argued that it is the USA’s task to ensure in all international forums that China has to play by western rules if it wants to be a global player (P169:6). Meanwhile, it is also emphasized—referring to China’s possible membership of the WTO—that as with Japan only the USA can protect American interests (P174:9ff.) and that trade with America is not […] a right but a privilege (P76:44). As the most powerful nation the USA is called on not to give in to bad trade deals (P189:4). Furthermore, it is also argued that the USA should take up the challenge to energize itself in order to maintain its place in the world (P143:3) and see the challenge posed by economic development in China, India and Eastern Europe to create a political consensus in favour of change and growth (P143:9). This bears similarities with the argument about taking up the challenge posed by Japan to rethink the relationship between economic and security policy.26 However, it is noticeable that potential US leverage over China is not seen as necessarily given.

25  See note 6 in Chap. 4 on Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, or Super 301 as it was legislated in 1988. 26  On these developments as ‘Sputnik-shocks’, referring to the launch of the Soviet satellite in 1957, see Thorsten (2012, introduction).

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Self-Criticisms: Values, Commercial Interests and the Liberal Theory of History As in the discourse on Japan, heterogeneity is at play and a strand of self-­ characterizations gives in to the dislocation, while at the same time internal differences are also partly dealt with through internal chains of equivalence with regard to the administration, which it is argued does not act in an adequate way to resolve the ‘problems’ with China. In accordance with the latter, economic and foreign policies are repeatedly declared an overall failure (P164:2; 125:10; P133:17; P176:4, 51) and the administration as lacking toughness (P125:53; P133:19; P186:2). As in the case of Japan, it is argued that national security should include and be tied to economic issues (P207:16). However, more prevalent with China than the security question with respect to the economy in the case of Japan are criticisms of the administration, which are connected to the broader question of ‘values’ versus ‘commercial interests’ and thus the impact of free trade beyond the economy according to the liberal theory of history. For example, President George H. W. Bush was criticized in hindsight for bailing out China’s leaders when Congress threatened to revoke MFN status (P149:4), and portrayed as failing to stand up for American workers who wither against illegal dumping practices and an undervalued Chinese currency (P207:17). It was claimed that only his inaction provoked Congress to force annual showdowns (P162:7, see also Dumbaugh 1998, 4). President Clinton in turn was blamed for having crumbled like a cookie on MFN (P145:22) and said to have abandoned the so-called ‘America-policy’ (P146:9), as he seemed to be more responsive to financial interests (P163:2) without a clearly and coherently articulated foreign policy (P124:1; P176:43; P125:6).27 On the other hand, criticisms of the administration are also voiced as part of chains of difference, when the linkage of MFN and human rights is characterized as a failure and not an ideal lever (P160:1f.). Moderate voices argued against hinging the entire Sino-American relationship on this issue (human rights in China, P112:3) in terms of moral commitments (cf. Paulsen 1999, 157), and in consequence treating China as an enemy in our trade relations (P136:127).

27  Referring to Clinton’s speech on ‘America policy’ in 1993, when because of the linkage he had previously made between MFN status and human rights, he stated that ‘we no longer have an executive branch policy and a congressional policy. We have an American policy’ (in Yang 2000, 123).

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As with Japan, the internal chains of equivalence criticize the USA as being naïve (P136:39, here directed against the administration) and a paper tiger (P162:10, referring to Mao Zedong calling the USA a paper tiger) and still conducting trade policy as largely focused on foreign policy, in spite of the large deficits with China or Japan (P198:8), and as […] most democracies, being unwilling to confront the harsh realities of nature (P201:2). In this sense the USA (articulated as ‘we’) is also criticized for being blindly devoted to trade at all costs (P189:11), acting like shopkeepers […] listening to the cash register (P138:21) and being driven by money. Furthermore, the USA is characterized as accustomed to quick fixes and expecting to be able to fix problems overnight (P136:6), which bears resemblance to long-term versus short-term thinking in relation to Japan. The ‘values’ versus ‘commercial interests’ debates are not only about the possible impact of the liberal theory of history, but also about the question of who in the USA actually benefits from economic relations with China (cf. e.g. Xie 2009, 112, 152). This exposes further internal chains of equivalence in addition to the ones articulated against the administration. On the one hand, there is the question of how important China is as an economy and market for the USA and its interests (P159:1; P125:84, 89; P126:5; P136:30f.; P195:8; P196:1; P197:1). It is argued that MFN removal would hurt US consumers, […] be a disaster to the US business community and […] place as many as 200,000 direct American jobs at risk (P145:11; P148:2; P149:8; P176:4; P178:1; P185:1f.; P188:6; P200:12), as China is seen as one of the fastest growing markets for US exports (P146:2). In line with these arguments that the USA would lose market share in China that might be taken up, for example, by the European states (P146:76; P160:1; P125:49; P176:4, 35), denying MFN is articulated as cutting off our nose to spite our face (P177:2) or the economic equivalent of saying ‘Lift up a rock and drop it on your own foot’ (P178:1). Within this line of reasoning, there is an attempt to build up internal chains of equivalence between those who claim to be protecting the US economy by maintaining MFN status versus those who insist on using MFN as leverage in the issue of human rights in China. On the other hand, it is argued that although domestic jobs play a role in the MFN debates, the USA should not sacrifice its values in terms of not falling all over ourselves in trying to justify a policy of appeasement (P161:1; P176:30, see Chap. 8) and not kowtow to Chinese bullying (P162:7), as it is only US businessmen reaping handsome profits in a low-wage economy (P165:3; P175:8; P138:5). What are called the believers in the theology of total free

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trade are criticized, because in consequence US workers have to compete with Chinese workers who earn twenty cents an hour (P166:5) and corporations are moving jobs to low-wage developing nations (P189:2; P138:55; P215:6) to export back here to the United States (P136:38). This line of argumentation criticizes the focus on US business interests to the detriment of the people in the United States (P176:31; P189:8ff.; P195:6; P138:6, 40; P200:6; P204:8; P209:2ff.; P132:16) who were held hostage by the business community (P180:4): some of my friends love capitalism more than they hate communism (P182:2), and we sold [the Soviet Union] ‘just about anything they could not shoot at us’ (P136:26). The extension of these arguments maintains that the Soviet military machine should not be replaced with another military superpower built with American trade dollars (P138:57). Granting PNTR is articulated as a signal of abject weakness. It is a signal of greed (P136:42), the almighty dollar (P137:126) and money, money, money (P195:51). This ‘values versus interests’ issue remains a red line regarding the question of how to deal with the trade deficit and China’s growing economy. As with Japan, the argument that China is ‘different’ also figures in the chains of equivalence and difference. However, it is articulated differently from the difference of Japan, and with different consequences for their relationships at the time. China as Different: Reason for Engagement? As with Japan, China is also articulated as (culturally) different (e.g. P136:2) but—in spite of the obvious ideological difference—generally in a potentially more accommodating and less antagonistic way than Japan. Hence, in terms of chains of equivalence and difference, China’s difference is not articulated as unambiguously as Japan’s as sustaining the equivalential/confrontational and exclusive arguments.28 China is seen having existed as a self-contained society for many centuries, [that] did not move easily into a cooperative relationship with the nations of the West (P114:1). Throughout its 4000-year history, China has resisted outside influences (P136:6). As for the question of how to deal with China’s difference, one frequent assertion—and ‘culturalistic’ argument—is that the Oriental people, the Chinese in particular, are very sensitive to face. If they determine in 28  Under the Trump administration, the articulations have centred around China as a ‘strategic rival’.

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any way that we are applying any kind of pressure, covert or overt, we will be totally unsuccessful (P146:37; P178:2; P137:57), as their wounds are still fresh from [their] harried humiliation by the Western powers (P137:57, here referring to the Opium Wars). Therein allegedly lies the psyche of the Chinese civilization and of many of the Chinese people, and China’s yearning to be a global superpower (P137:57). This is often associated with China being one of the oldest civilizations in the world, one of the most developed civilizations in the world (P159:2; P195:14), a great nation with an ancient culture and a proud tradition (P188:4), that is motivated by concerns about pride and stability (P159:4), but that for much of the 20th century, has been playing catch up with the West (P137:57). However, it is also emphasized that China has never experienced the types of freedoms that we in the Western world have developed so torturously over so many thousands of years (P125:8), and that it is not a free country (P189:4). In this line Confucianism is associated with persistent feudalism, which mixes in with decaying socialism and rapid capitalism (P169:13), and China is seen as having a Marxist superstructure, superimposed on a capitalist substructure […] a recipe for tension, dislocation and conflict in the long term (P169:5). This exposes what the USA finds disturbing about China developing contrary to the liberal theory of history, as socialism/Marxism and capitalism should not be able to coexist. China is also depicted as providing an unparalleled view of a nation in the constant grip of absolutism, in which the Chinese people have been treated as disposable resources of the state (P201:2). This again shows that in distinction to the difference of Japan, China’s difference is mostly articulated in terms of its form of government and ideology, and less in terms of personalized individual or societal characteristics. The more negative articulations of China’s difference emphasize China’s long history of aggressive behavior […] activated by […] actual and perceived grievances (P201:1), seen as an unbroken international internalization of the concept of externally expanding power as a guiding principle of foreign policy (P201:2), with China willing to do whatever it takes, regardless of ruling ideology, to become a global superpower (P137:57). It is argued that China, despite its communist roots and totalitarian regime, realizes that in the modern world it not only takes military strength to become a superpower, it also takes economic strength (P137:57). In line with this reasoning, important questions are whether the USA can really trust China (P137:58) and how China will evolve. It is maintained that it is not a society that is evolving toward freedom (P202:1)—hence again

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contradicting the liberal theory of history and being fundamentally different from the USA—and that the regime in China is more powerful, more belligerent to the United States and more repressive than ever before (P202:10). Contrary to this view, China is on the other hand depicted as evolving into a more open society with a government that is increasingly sensitive to international opinion and willing to work with fellow nations and the United States (P190:3), and as a case for economic engagement as a mechanism for affecting political change (P136:60). This touches on the central debate over the liberal theory of history, which is addressed below. On the side of the chains of difference, however, and again exposing heterogeneity, China’s ‘difference’ is articulated as a reason to avoid a confrontational approach: Western and Asian societies have different understandings and expectations of human rights (P157:3), and China, as a proud nation, will not be pushed around and let the USA impose its system as China has no history of democracy (P159:2f.). Yet it is also acknowledged that the ‘difference’ might be an excuse on both sides, on the side of business circles to allow trade with China regardless of its human rights situation (P162:9), and on the Chinese side by claiming that for cultural reasons, historical reasons, they don’t have to abide by intellectual property rules or anything else (P132:87). This bears resemblance to the criticism of Japan for citing its ‘uniqueness’ as an excuse for restricting trade or imports, while it is also argued that China’s difference might preclude the kind of relationship we have with other countries in the region such as Japan (P124:3). In other statements, such as in the debates on the oil company Unocal, China’s difference is emphasized implicitly by reiterating the predication communist China at the beginning of every remark (e.g. P:207).

6.4   China as a ‘World (Economic) Power’, and Challenger of the USA? As with Japan, the consequences of China’s economic rise for the USA and its standing as a global power feature centrally in the debates. Compared to the challenge of Japan, which was seen in terms of economic competition, and referred not only to ‘quantity’ in terms of Japanese imports flooding the USA but also to ‘quality’ as the technological level of Japan was perceived as superseding that of the USA, in the case of China

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the concern was at first rather about the size of the Chinese economy and its impact beyond the economic sphere.29 The fairly ambivalent or positive predications concerning China’s rise are the most populous country in the world (e.g. P114:7; P125:76), big economic power (e.g. P115:4), economic giant (e.g. P150:1), a regional power (P112:3), an emerging superpower (e.g. P176:54) and even nuclear (super) power (e.g. P112:3; P125:55). Relations with China are seen as important for economic reasons (P136:32)—with China articulated as an economic partner (P143:6) and trading partner (P205:1)—but also beyond the economic sphere (P188:2; P190:1): no country figures to have a greater impact on the United States than the People’s Republic of China. The emergence of China as a major world power is one of the historic events of the late 20th century (e.g. P190:1). In this line of argumentation, rejecting MFN/ PNTR is articulated as having a negative impact on all aspects of the relationship (P136:16). When it comes to assessing China’s character as a ‘power’, it is on the one hand pronounced as rapidly becoming a great and complete power (P113:4; P123:1; P176:63; P182:1), as a major regional actor/key country in Asia (P147:2; P188:2; P137:46) with the potential to be an international superpower (P149:5), and even as the strongest military power in Asia and an independent nuclear power (P149:5). Furthermore, with respect to its future development, China is seen as a country whose power and influence will grow not only in Asia but in the world at large (P149:6), the chief economic and political tiger that will dominate Asia in the years to come (P124:1), one of the two or three most important countries in the world early in the next century (P125:7), a pivotal nation in the Pacific rim (P125:89) and a trading power/superpower in trade (P169:2; P215:3). In this respect, the differential and accommodating voices point to China as an engine driving the economic future of the Asia-Pacific region (together with Japan) (P113:3), potentially being the first example of a Communist system that will succeed in meeting the economic needs of her people (P113:2), and a driver for global economic growth (P150:1). In this line, China is also seen as important for the US economy in terms of 29  For example, Bown and McCulloch point out that Japan was already an established industrialized nation in the 1980s, while—in terms of per capita income—China was still a ‘poor’ country (Bown and McCulloch 2009, 671). The debate on China and technological competition has significantly shifted since 2008, as China came to be seen as a competitor in telecommunications and other advanced technologies.

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offering a growing and potentially large market for American goods, services and technology [… and] as a [potential] partner in writing the new rules of trade in this new world market place (P149:6), as a fertile market with tremendous possibilities (P125:89), a nation whose economy is increasingly free and open (P125:64) and as an economic partner (P143:6). On the other hand, China over time is taken to be a country that could overtake the US as the world’s largest economy within the next decades (P114:3), as the one country in the world that can be our rival in the 21st century (P132:11), and increasingly [as an] economic competitor, however […] not an adversary (P137:46), but also as the largest single security threat to the Asian nations (P149:6). US Relations with China Those who argue in favour of engaging China articulate it as too big, and too dynamic, and too strategically important to ignore or push to an enemy status (P125:7), as it can ill afford the perception that the United States continues to bully and dictate to her at will (P113:4). In this context, the relationship is seen as important not only for economic reasons (P113:3), but also because of the broader picture of US policies in East Asia (P145:38) and worldwide, with China as a major actor in important international efforts we undertake. […] We cannot slap China in the face, and then turn around and expect that country’s help in achieving success in other foreign policy initiatives (P146:2). Some view the US-China relationship as probably […] most important relationship that the United States will have for the next 20 years. That is whether China is viewed by this country as our enemy, or […] as an ally, or perhaps something in between (P125:9; P175:10). It is also argued that if we treat China – our World War II ally (P190:2) – as an enemy, it will become our enemy (P188:8; P184:2), and that how China evolves will profoundly affect our economic, political and security interests (P184:1; P188:16) around the world (P188:2). The questions of how to deal with China as a rising power are more obviously than with Japan connected to the broader issue of the impact on US identity in its role as promoter of free trade and liberal democratic capitalism beyond the immediate economic realm. The constant argument of those in favour of expanding trade relations with China—by making MFN status permanent and ultimately agreeing to China’s membership of the WTO—is that free trade would ultimately result in political reform

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and an opening up and thus change in China—the liberal theory of history argument. With the MFN status, the central argument unfolds around the question of whether granting it would actually improve the human rights situation in China, or whether the USA would just be acting according to its commercial interests: The debate […] is not just about China and the Chinese Government […]. This debate is also about our own country, about what we are willing to stand up for […] about whether or not we as a Nation put trade before people and profits above principles (P176:8; see also 49, 52; P113:14f.; P137:126). It is argued that: if we do nothing […] our credibility as a world leader and as a defender of human rights will be devastated and that if we do nothing today, we will be saying it’s OK to get tough with Cuba […]. It does not cost us much to stand on principle with them. They are little and their potential trade is not significant. […] we will be saying we do not stand on principle when it comes to big boys – like China – because it costs too much. […] We should not […] trade away our commitment to human rights and freedom, (P146:5, 8)

as freedom is not free (P187:4), and not be hypocrites with a market in sight to exploit (P162:5). In line with this reasoning, it is articulated that US identity in terms of its liberal values would be ‘unfulfilled’ if there was no decisive action on the human rights situation in China. China (and the world) would perceive this as weakness by the USA, which might lead to it being viewed as the ‘paper tiger’ (P162:8f.). Here, a potential dislocation is articulated through internal chains of equivalence along the lines that the liberal theory of history is being used as a fig leaf for furthering commercial interests, instead of upholding the traditional values the USA stands for. In a related point, the central line of argumentation with regard to trade relations with China revolves not only around the deficit and the role of China in the US economy, but—in connection with the issue of ‘values’ versus ‘commercial interests’—also around the question of the transformative impact of US trade policy on China’s political system, most concretely in the congressional debates on the human rights situation. Those in line with the liberal theory of history argue in favour of the

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interconnectedness of economic and political liberty, which can be made effective through free trade.30 In this view, the best foreign policy tools available to us to encourage political and civil reform abroad are policies that promote capitalism, market reform, and free trade. All three are powerful levers for political change, precisely because they are powerful mechanisms for economic change. (P145:15; P157:2; 179:2f.)

The free market is articulated as the greatest liberator known to man!; and even though the process in China might be slow (P154:4; P176:2), and although China might be moving to a different kind of capitalism, there is no alternative to capitalism as the market economy is the way of the future (P171:3). It is maintained that the free exchange of commerce and ideas offers the best hope we have to project the light of freedom into Communist China (P176:2; P178:2) and that the road to democracy is paved with free markets as free trade is the bridge to reach out to the Chinese (P136:129). Trade and investment are articulated as part of a greater effort to promote long-term progress toward political pluralism and democracy in China, even though it is conceded that Clinton’s decision [to delink MFN and human rights] was in part based on pure commercial interests (P125:53, 76). Against those voices who maintained that the argument was just about trade, it was reasoned that our greatest export is not our products and our services, our greatest exports are our ideals and our values (P137:35; P195:2, 53). South Korea and Taiwan are referred to as positive examples (P157:2; P125:85; P176:3, 40; P179:3) of where the theory proved correct (see also Dumbaugh 1998, 33). Referring to the debate on MFN and human rights, it is argued that it is precisely the exposure to Western values and the king of economic improvement […] that have improved the human rights situation in China or will further improve it (P145:19, 39; P146:6f., P120:1; P125:48, 54; P126:3; P194:1). Accordingly, developments come as natural results of economic reform rather than from American pressure (P147:2; P167:54; P195:21). The connection between economic and political development is taken for granted, because according to the liberal theory of history, an economic democracy cannot exist long term without a social democracy following, and as capitalism penetrates Chinese society, the push for greater democracy will inexorably follow (P170:3; P136:94). China’s membership of the WTO, and the extension of PNTR, could only  Cf. also, for example, Xie (2009, 112).

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further this development, as trade is the engine of the 21st century (P136:6, 31ff.; P137:90; P195:149; P197:1ff.; P138:2ff; P200:2), and once China was a WTO member its practices that are harmful to its trading partners could also be taken care of efficiently (P197:3; P203:2). In this sense, the liberal theory of history, and the US role according to it, is articulated as not being dislocated, but as having already produced positive change and as still producing it. In this sense the USA—in line with its self-understanding as a role model—articulates itself as a ‘guide’ for China: through American influence, positive changes can be made in other societies, including China (P125:89; P176:36), Americans doing business in China have contributed to prosperity and at the same time are continually able to transfer the values and ideals of freedom and democracy through direct contacts. (P176:3)

In line with American exceptionalism, the USA is seen as the sole facilitator of China’s liberalization: without our influence, how will democratic values come to be accepted in China? […] We have a duty here in this body to make sure we are an influence in China (P176:8), America can be a shining example to the world (P176:39, 46), as we can help to change the world. […] We can be on the right side of history (P194:5). With no other country [having] the same heritage about freedom and liberty (P162:5), the US has the best opportunity in history to promote human rights, the rule of law, free markets, and democracy […] in the far corners of the globe (P146:107; P175:10; P195:14; P143:3; 218:1). For these reasons it is broadly claimed that on the vote on PNTR for China history demands a ‘yes’ vote (P195:9). The way we engage the Chinese Government will help determine whether China assimilates into the community of nations or becomes more isolated and unpredictable (P138:12). In accordance with the broader lines of liberal thinking, it is argued that the best way to avoid conflict is to engage each other in trade and closer economic ties (P176:64; P137:71; P195:1, 18; P196:2; P197:6; P199:13). Those who opposed MFN because according to their argumentation, there had been no improvement in China (P180:3)—which is why they call China a disfavored nation (P180:5)—often argued against the entire

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liberal theory of history.31 In this view trade should be seen as a weapon available to help the USA stand up to China (P145:43), and the liberal theory of history is articulated as not about political reform, but about commercial interests (P146:28), and as a fallacy: it would be incautious to assume that it [social change in China through rapid economic growth] will necessarily lead to democracy (P160:2) in the Western sense (P163:3), as the trade relationship only bolsters those in power and does nothing to further the cause of democracy (P125:59; P187:1). It is argued that only economic sanctions affect totalitarian governments (P167:57). The claim that trade would improve human rights is called a myth (P176:6), as in this view economic prosperity does not bring about ‘automatic’ democracy (P176:22; P189:3; P195:15), which is why trade should not be taken as a panacea (P138:4; P200:4). History has shown that not every capitalist economy has produced a democratic government (e.g. Germany and Japan, P138:44ff.). Clinton’s mantra in line with the liberal view, as well as Bush’s earlier arguments for it (P138:25) are also criticized as developments in China point in another direction (P138:25ff.): The commercialist view of China, by contrast, rests on no historical foundation; it is a libertarian fantasy (P138:31).

31  Even though this line of thinking had been very prominent before Clinton’s WTO campaign, there had also long been opposition to it, exposing internal differences.

CHAPTER 7

Perspectivation on Japan and China: The USA as Victim of ‘Unfair’ and ‘Illiberal’ Policies

7.1   Perspectivation on Japan: ‘The Cart Is Before the Horse’ The main perspective from which the USA articulated itself vis-à-vis Japan throughout the entire time period—even after attention started shifting towards China from 1995—was that it was consistently getting the short end of the stick (P1:3), albeit with occasional exceptions around 1997 when the US economy seemed to be back ‘on top’ (P:132).1 The dominant US economic perspective was an expression of inferiority vis-à-vis Japan, of being a victim of ‘unfair’ Japanese policies and forced to retaliate simply because Japan’s policies left no alternative, and of being dependent on Japan.2 All this is articulated against a background of the USA continuing to defend and provide security to Japan, which is captured metaphorically in the expression of putting the cart before the horse (P73:50). The perspective of economic inferiority is expressed in statements such as: Americans need to improve their export capabilities. We often fail to match […] Japanese skill and determination (P2:17). The organization of 1  Italics are used in Chaps. 5, 6, 7 and 8 for words and phrases taken directly from the source material. P = primary document; the number following, for example, P2, refers to the document number in the reference section; the number after the colon refers to the page number in the document. The list of all source material cited is included in the bibliography at the end of the book. 2  Cf., for example, Huntington (1993, 78f.).

© The Author(s) 2020 N. Nymalm, From ‘Japan Problem’ to ‘China Threat’?, Global Political Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44951-3_7

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US economic policy linked to trade policy is critically compared to Japan: there is absolutely no single agency that is accountable for our trade policy. How different from our neighbor Japan [referring to the MITI] (P4:4; cf. also Nanto 1992, 21, who characterizes US trade policy on Japan as ‘as fragmented and coordinated (or uncoordinated) as any other US policy’).3 It is for example also claimed that [the fact] that we have no competitive strategy for our auto sector is one of the main reasons we are losing (P19:31). Quoting a speech by the President of Chrysler, Lee Iacocca, in 1985, who was an outspoken critic of Japan and its policies, it is argued that the United States is ‘getting whipped’ by foreign competition (P39:48). Similar statements include we still have not learned the difference between being a partner in a trade deal and the patsy of one (P5:37) and we are going down the tubes internationally in this particular competition (P13:11). Congress argued that our competitiveness in many industries [is] already mortally wounded (P83:30),4 as the Japanese are beating America in many aspects of the international trade race (P84:4) and we have failed to stand up to the Japanese and insist on fairness (P92:31) so they have been eating our lunch for decades (P93:25). The perspective that the USA could and should learn from Japan (cf. Vogel 1979), which was prominent among both critics (i.e. also the revisionists) and ‘friends’ of Japan, was expressed in statements like: The lesson we can learn from Japan is that aggressive government economic development and trade policies can be effective […] (P95:36), and the United States would have a much better trade policy if we followed many of Japan’s historic practices (P105:126). Furthermore, it is maintained that Japan is becoming superior in terms of technological innovation (cf. also e.g. Cohen et al. 1996, 176, which calls Japan a ‘challenge to US preeminence as an economic and technological superpower’):

3  The Japanese Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI), which was replaced by the Ministry of Economic Trade and Industry (METI) in 2001, was widely considered ‘the most powerful link of the Japanese government and linchpin of the Japanese economic miracle’ (Thorsten 2012, 42, 149), a view that was most prominently espoused by Chalmers Johnston in his MITI and the Japanese Miracle in 1982. MITI was seen as pursuing and orchestrating Japan’s industrial policy by directing resources, structuring markets and influencing enterprise decisions, and as such it became the ‘indicator’ for Japan as a ‘developmental state’ versus the USA as a ‘capitalist regulatory state’ (Kunkel 2003, 136f.). 4  This is an example of the ‘war rhetoric’ (cf. also Zeiler 2001, 224) prevalent under the category of intensification, see Chap. 8.

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American business executives no longer patronize the Japanese as ‘imitators’, end ‘copiers’ of American technology. […] In the wake of Japan’s drive for technological supremacy, they are scrambling to keep up with the new scientific research in Japan […] American scientists find themselves hard-pressed to learn of Japanese breakthroughs. (P66:17)5

That Japan did not separate security-related questions from economic ones is also seen as a strength the USA lacks: we viewed this deal [FSX] from a military point of view, while Japan considered the economic implications (P71:63), they kept their eyes on the ball. They know that the strongest economic system is the strongest base for […] strong national security (P73:52).6 Adding to the perspective of inferiority is the increase in Japanese investment in businesses and property in the USA, which is articulated as Japan ‘buying up the USA’:7 the Japanese are buying up Columbia Pictures, Rockefeller Center, half of downtown Los Angeles and much else […] do the Japanese have a money machine? (P79:3, quoting a Washington Post article). Japan owns a great deal of America. They own […] a majority of the office buildings in places like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Washington, DC, […]. Japanese investment occurred in different parts of the USA and in various sectors, but purchases of iconic industries or landmark buildings drew the most attention. These investments were welcomed by some, but also articulated as an ‘economic invasion’ (cf. Morris 2011, 24). It is also pointed out that the USA itself bears some responsibility for the situation, because we have not discouraged that kind of investment (P80:2; see also P89:3), so Japan has succeeded in buying large segments of this country (P100:5). A CRS report in early 1990 categorizes Japanese investment in the USA as ‘one of the more visible signs of Japan’s emerging role as an international financial power’, and points out that it has elicited a negative reaction from parts of the US public, which arises from: a feeling that the United States is declining as an international economic power as well as a world power and that Americans view the economic  See also Morris (2011, 24) and Uriu (2009, 42ff.).  For details on the FSX, see Spar (1992), which emphasizes that commercial interests were present on both sides. 7  By the end of the 1980s, Japan had become the second largest investor in US businesses and in real estate (cf. Kunkel 2003, 42) after the UK, see Jackson (1990, 4) and Hodges (1989). 5 6

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strength of industrial competitors such as Japan as a greater threat to US security than the military strength of such countries as the Soviet Union.

This refers to an opinion poll by BusinessWeek-Harris that is also cited in Congress, and its finding that 68 percent of the public [feel] that the economic threat posed by Japan outweighs the military threat from the Soviet Union, and nearly 70 per cent of the respondents [feel] that Japan imposes unfair trade barriers on American products (P86:1). In spite of the fact that Japanese investment in the USA was only half that of the UK’s, 78 per cent of the public in 1988 thought that Japan was number one (Jackson 1990, 2).8 In Congress it is pointed out that a large percentage of Americans [are] saying ‘no’ when it comes to the question of whether any other country or nationals of any other country should own factories, stores, land in our States (P93:6). In line with the perspective on inferiority is that of being a victim of unfair Japanese policies, which also runs as a red thread through the debates over the entire period. This is articulated through statements such as everyone seems prepared to blame the United States for its problems in trade (P10:9); however, according to this view, discrimination against every American manufacturer and every American commodity is rampant in Japan and in most of our trading partners (P18:42). Especially with respect to the car industry, it is claimed that US Auto firms are not on a level playing field with their Japanese counterparts (P19:32), they are targeting American industries and victimizing the United States. Most Americans don’t even understand that a new game is being played, let alone that they are losing (P20:37), we are […] suffering from the Japanese style of negotiations (P22:10). The argument that Japan ‘targets’ certain technologically advanced industries in the USA in terms of strategically competing against them, but also for acquisition, was put forward most notably by the revisionists. In part, the critics of acquisitions feared that the US company would be stripped of its technology, which would be used by the parent company in Japan (Jackson 1990, 6). This was to become a common concern related to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and China under the Obama and Trump administrations. In this sense US ‘openness’ is contrasted with Japan taking advantage: 8  Between 1980 and 1988, Japanese investment increased more than eightfold from US$35 billion to US$285 billion, and the largest share of that investment was in US Treasury securities (Jackson 1990, 3, 14).

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America greets Japanese investment with encouragement and open arms […] Japan greets American investment with discouragement, closed doors and silent ‘cultural barriers’. Our trade relationship with Japan, the world’s second largest economy, is a one-way street. […] the Japanese will do everything in their power to keep it that way. (P80:2)

In addition, industry after industry is taken from us in world competition: cars, computers, cameras (P83:22). In line with this perspective, it is argued that in consequence the United States is […] being flooded by goods (P22:11) and that the international trade crisis between the United States and Japan […] threatens our economic recovery, our industries, and hundreds of thousands of American jobs (P25:46). While Japanese businesses get rich and American workers lose their jobs by the thousands (P28:3), Japan has not sought to strengthen but to weaken our world trading system (P29:7), and consequently those countries that practice free trade are penalized (P37:34). While we are trying to be good citizens in the world market […] we do not see a similar willingness on the part of the Japanese (P42:39). On the contrary, the Japanese are described as ‘enjoying’ the situation in statements like the Japanese are laughing all the way to the bank (P42:42). Japanese protectionism is said to be hurting the United States badly (P68:21), as with the help of unfair trade practices Japan has already taken advantage of us to the disadvantage of our economy in general and to our auto and semiconductor industries in particular (P71:37). It is also generally maintained that the more open an economy is […], the more vulnerable its industries are to dumping, and the United States unquestionably has the most open market of any country in the world (P151:15). This allegedly results in a situation where there is a temptation on the part of many nations to think that we will be the dumping ground of last resort – much as we have been in the past (P151:20), as the rules of trade between the United States and Japan are fundamentally unfair (P198:8). From these kinds of perspectivations it becomes clear that while on the one hand there are voices arguing that Japan might actually be doing something better than the USA, and thus to some extent conceding to the dislocation, there are also strong attempts to articulate Japan’s unfairness through chains of equivalence as the single reason for its success, thereby aiming to suppress internal difference and the heterogeneity of Self and Other in preserving US identity as the leading economic power. While Japan being ‘better’ than the USA runs counter to American

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exceptionalism, the inferiority and victimization discourse can be seen as contributing to the creation of insecurity in order to facilitate and legitimize forceful responses (cf. Thorsten 2012, 24), in a parallel with the intensifying discourse on China, especially since the beginning of the Trump administration (see the conclusion). US Decline Through ‘Japanese Economic Hegemony’? From the predominant perspective of inferiority, the assessment of the situation goes so far as to predict the decline of the USA9 on the economic front but also on a broader scale. This begins in the mid-1980s with statements such as: the economic health of the United States is threatened by continuing increases in the Nation’s trade deficits with Japan and other foreign countries (P8:4). It is explicitly stated that the Japanese will continue to prevail, take over the international market, destroy the American standard of living and our capacity as a world power. That’s the threat we face (P13:12). Meanwhile, this scenario is described as an unacceptable erosion of traditional leadership in the international marketplace (P24:1). In this vein, the question is asked: how much longer can we continue to subjugate United States interests to Japanese economic hegemony? (P73:73). A change of course from recent history to the 1980s is articulated as gloomy: We all know where Japan’s economy was after the end of WWII […] then, the United States produced goods for the world. Now, Japan does (P73:133). The significance of Japan’s technological superiority is expressed in statements like: if Japan would say no to the United States and sell semiconductors to the Soviet Union instead, ‘It would instantly change the balance of power’ (P82:2). In the not-too-distant future the United States would begin to slide into a

9  This kind of ‘declinist’ line of reasoning was especially prominent when referring critically to economic policies under President Reagan. The main arguments were that after the Cold War US military power had or would become less important, that the USA would suffer from ‘imperial overstretch’ while losing its technological competitiveness, and that the individualistic style of Anglo-American capitalism was countered by a ‘communal’ style capitalism in Europe and Japan perceived as deviating from the rules of the liberal trading regime, and putting the USA at disadvantage. As Robert Cox pointed out at the beginning of the 1990s, it was not necessarily an actual ‘objective’ decline of the USA in terms of its material capacities that indicated a weakening of the ‘hegemonic order’, but the debate on a decline itself (cf. Hummel 2000, 51), which is interesting to keep in mind with regard to the similarities to and differences from the later debate on China.

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second-rate international power (P82:5), and it is emphasized that there was indeed a deepening belief that America is an ebbing power (P82:8): Just 44 years ago […] the United States, conqueror and ruler of Japan, fully emerged as the world’s preeminent superpower. Now, the roles have been reversed. Japan has managed history’s most spectacular comeback. It stands today as the newest superpower. (P100:4)

By contrast, the new situation facing the USA is articulated as grim: the economic position of the United States [is] deteriorating (P133:78). They are beating us in trade [… the] world power that loses its manufacturing capacity will cease to be a world power (P136:18), and the question for the future is articulated as whether we want the Europeans or the Japanese to be the economic model other nations look to emulate (P209:42), which would be an outright contradiction of the US self-understanding as a global role model in the light of American exceptionalism. One of the main reasons for the feeling of inferiority and the possibility of decline is articulated as having become dependent on Japan because of US debt: Japan is financing our debt (P4:5), we [are doing anything we can] to make the Japanese happy, so they won’t foreclose on the mortgages (P71:55), maybe they will stop buying our debt, our government loans, and our securities. Maybe they will teach us a lesson (P71:69). From the broader perspective of the US-Japanese relationship, it is seen as an ironic situation in which the world’s largest creditor is defended by the world’s largest debtor, and the debtor borrows from the creditor and pays interest on the moneys borrowed. (P73:50). Referring to Trading Places: How We Allowed Japan to Take the Lead (Prestowitz 1988),10 it is emphasized that the United States was [once] the biggest creditor nation in the world. Now Japan is, and the United States is the biggest debtor nation in the world. Then we were the economic leaders, the technological innovators, now Japan is. The phenomenon has been called ‘Trading Places’ (P73:134). The perceived dependency on Japan is further expressed in statements such as: Our United States Treasury turns to Japan with knees trembling when we go out to sell our bonds. Will they buy? (P73:50). In this sense, some voices told how they had: 10  One of the core revisionist works, in which Clyde V. Prestowitz argued that Japan had deviated from the ‘Western model’ and that the USA itself had not only failed to understand this, but also lacked knowledge and understanding of the requirements for strategic economic power (cf. Morris 2011, 37).

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become convinced that America is in decline and will increasingly need Japanese capital so badly that we will accept it on whatever terms it comes, the Japanese believe that they can get away with constructing a more tightly controlled, more profitable, more mercantile, and of course, more self-interested method of exercising world leadership than the American post-war model of leadership. (P77:8; in 1989)

This is in line with the discourse on the ‘Pax Americana’ being replaced by a ‘Pax Japonica’ in line with ‘Japanese culture’. A 1990 CRS report on Japanese investment addresses the concern of some observers about the possible leverage that Japanese investors might have over the USA, such as the possibility of a pull-out should the dollar decline too much or too rapidly, but concludes that Japan was no more prone to withdrawing its funds than any other foreign or even US investor (Jackson 1990, 13f.). Nonetheless, the loss of control is also seen in the dependence on foreign investment: we anticipate […] that the Japanese will purchase […] a good part of our domestic deficit week by week. […] We count on Japanese and European friends (P93:6), we simply have placed ourselves in the vulnerable position that we have to rely on the good will of investors from all over the world (P93:10). Thus, in 1988 Zbigniew Brzezinski (the former security adviser to President Jimmy Carter), referring to the value of the dollar and the size of the debt, argued that ‘the United States will be hard put to exercise effective economic leadership, and its capacity to sustain its role as the principal defender of the free world will be severely undermined’ (cited in Kataoka 1995, 10).11 In line with these concerns, in Congress the USA is seen as getting the short end of the stick globally, and not only in relation to Japan: the United States is now the world’s biggest debtor nation […] and foreign ownership of US assets […] is rising very rapidly (P77:11; in 1989). In consequence, it is argued that:

11  In 1988 Brzezinski was invoking ‘Amerippon’ to ‘provide new leadership and stability to the global economic system’ (cited in Kataoka 1995, 10–11), which resembles the ‘Chimerica’ coined by Ferguson and Schularick (2011). Scholars debated the mutual dependency between the USA and Japan as a ‘vicious circle’ (Gilpin 1987, 337), but also emphasized that Japan needed a healthy US economy as much as Americans did (cf. Packard 1987, 4). On China having replaced Japan, see, for example, Layne (2007, 154). On the ‘dependence’ of the USA on China as a financer of budget deficits through its large holdings of US Treasury securities see Morrison (2014, Summary).

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there is a danger to US debt and dependence on foreign capital. That danger is a real loss of American economic and political independence […] how long before our foreign creditors pull on America’s debt chain to command obedience? (P82:1), as our debt grows, we are losing our capacity to control our destiny (P89:3). America’s private debt is held by foreign countries, 53 per cent […] Japan first, and China second […] I think that is not good for our country, for our grandchildren […] give America back to Americans. (P207:15; in 2005)

Importantly, the question of how the USA should respond is also articulated as ‘depending on Japan’, in the sense that Japan leaves no other choice because its unfair trading practices are at the root of everything, as it is maintained that the USA’s means and its patience have simply been exhausted, as, for example, in statements like: If this continues, I, as a free trade advocate, will be forced to introduce legislation which will mandate that we put quotas on the Japanese […] (P41:20), no open world trading system can exist if a major trading nation bases its economy on exporting goods […] while adamantly refusing to import virtually anything […]. (P41:27)

For instance, in 1985 steel import talks with Japan are already being labelled a lesson in futility (P22:10), and it is contended that it is Japan’s willingness […] [that] will determine whether protectionist sentiment in the Congress and across the Nation will increase or subside (P26:40), as allegedly everything has been tried: our negotiators […] have knocked on every door (P27:50), hence we can no longer tolerate the one-way street […] that ha[s] characterized past Japanese-American trade relations (P28:4). Japan is repeatedly accused of making ‘empty promises’: They must understand that we have long passed the period when we will be mollified by smiles and promises (P28:4), we are tired of playing on a field tilted heavily in their direction (P30:14), as it is claimed that the Japanese have so far successfully disregarded warnings (P37:33). According to this perspective, the USA ‘has to’ react: The United States deserves equal treatment by the Japanese; and if we do not get it, we will act to retaliate (P42:28), as the days of talk are over and the days of action are beginning (P42:29). The trade discussions with Japan are articulated as complicated, generally polite – and usually unproductive (P42:34). Nonetheless, upholding US identity as a fair and free trader, it is claimed that we have never retaliated against Japan for unfair trade practices (P56:3).

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Accordingly, the USA is articulated as an ‘unselfish victim’ that can no longer help but defend itself: if we do not promote this country’s economic interests in the interest of a free and fair market, other people will successfully promote their own selfish interests (P56:4). Or: It is not my intention to be critical of Japan […] [but it] is the reality that Japan must open its markets to the United States. Let me remind our Japanese friends that no American politician can stand idly by and watch our industrial base deteriorate (P61:24). It is repeatedly argued that nothing has changed over time, but that the same old patterns of behavior by the United States and Japan are being repeated (P69:1). For instance, for decades now, American business has met a Japanese market closed in all sorts of sectors. We have negotiated over semiconductors, glass, insurance, apples, oranges, medical equipment, supercomputers, wood products, beef and more (P119:1) and we have watched a 30-year parade of Presidents and administration officials disturbed about our unequal relationship with Japan. Leaders wrung their hands […] but didn’t make serious changes […] (P164:5, in 1994). Through the perspectives of getting the short end of the stick and being the victim, being dependent on Japan and, finally, Japan leaving the USA with no other choice, two basic arguments are put forward in terms of chains of equivalence: the perspective is articulated as contradicting US identity as an economic and global power to such an extent that the USA has no other choice but to react to the situation in order to prevent a possible decline. Furthermore, if it does react in a way that goes against its identity as a free trader, this is also ‘Japan’s fault’ as after a long period of the USA trying every strategy, the situation leaves no other choice. In this sense, through the empty signifier ‘(un)fairness’, everything the USA does serve only to ‘restore’ fairness and is aimed at eliminating heterogeneity by sustaining its (dominant) self-understanding. Is Japan Still an Ally? Another reason articulated for ‘running out of patience’, even in 1985, is being disappointed in the behaviour of Japan as an ally (P73:28, 56, 117): I’m no communist, folks, but it’s not Russia that’s laying waste to my business, and to most of the rest of business in this country. It’s Japan … our friend. While, by the way, we pay to defend him against our enemy! (P29:34). It is argued that it is intolerable for us to be […] the guarantors of Japanese security interests and have Japan still reluctant to give a fair deal on the economic front (P73:117).

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A particular case of discontent was identified in the case of Toshiba and its sale of restricted technology and chemical weapons-related equipment. In 1987 it was revealed that the Toshiba Machine Company had violated regulations set by the international Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls by selling computer-guided propeller milling machines to the Soviet Union between 1982 and 1984, purportedly improving the capabilities of Soviet submarines to evade detection. In protest, in July 1987 nine Republican members of Congress destroyed a small Toshiba radio-cassette player with a sledgehammer at a press conference on Capitol Hill (cf. Morris 2011, 57). The chemical weapons issue refers to a revelation by Toshiba in 1989 that in 1985 it had provided electrical equipment for a plant in Libya that was suspected by the USA of producing containers and shells for chemical weapons. Toshiba officials insisted that they acted only as a subcontractor and that to their knowledge the plant was manufacturing equipment for desalinating seawater. The shipments were not at the time considered to have violated export control laws (Sanger 1989). In Congress, these occurrences fitted into the existing perspective of Japan as not behaving like an ally: I share those frustrations over Japanese carelessness in exporting technology to the Soviet Union in the Toshiba case and to Libya in the chemical weapons case, and over Japanese reluctance to take on a greater role in our common defense and on third world debt (P73:1). A frequent perspective in seeking to explain the situation once again brings in the ‘difference’ of Japan, with economic and cultural arguments being intertwined in many cases. While some voices highlight, for instance, the lack of tact of the US trade representative when it comes to dealing with the Japanese (P8:22; see also P39:48, P69:4 on a similar matter), it is more commonly argued that excessive politeness prevents Japan and the United States from facing the conflict […] and that the relationship had a fragile walking-on-eggs quality (quoting James Fallows, P93:11, 42). This statement explicitly refers to the revisionist arguments in what are called: three very excellent books aimed at this particular point, where are we going? One is by Karel van Wolferen, a Dutchman, The Enigma of Japanese Power. Another is written by Chalmers Johnson, MITI: the Organization of Trade, the Ministry of Trade, and the Japanese Miracle, And the third is written by James Fallows, entitled. Containing Japan (ibid.)

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Self-Criticism, or the Search for an Internal Culprit? While the main blame for the disadvantageous standing of the USA is placed on Japan, self-criticisms reflecting internal differences of different kinds are articulated as directed broadly at the USA in general terms, but also internally as chains of equivalence against the administration and ‘free trade policy’ more generally. The self-critical perspective imputes the USA for its naïveté, but also for its ‘bad habits’: once again, the voices of sirens […] are lulling us into believing that calm waters lie ahead, even though we know the sky will turn dark, the seas will boil and we’ll be pushed onto the rocks of disaster (P10:9, referring to an announcement by Japan in 1985 that it would import more US manufactured goods). Or, less figuratively: I do not say this to bash the Japanese. I say it to salute them […] I say it to bash ourselves (P73:50). In addition, when it comes to ‘bad habits’ it is argued that: America is now paying the piper […] depending on the thrift of the Japanese and other nations to pay for its extravagances […] The malaise is now so deeply rooted in American customs […] without forceful leadership at the top levels of Washington, there is a risk it may not get done in time to preserve US control of the US economy. (P90:2)

In this respect, Japan is even said to have a point in criticizing the USA: the Japanese rightly argue that the United States lacks a responsible fiscal policy and adequate savings rate (P91:6), why do we on Capitol Hill not understand what the working men and women of this country understand very well? (P92:2). The USA is articulated as not thinking about its own future, as it is seen as inclined to buy and wear Chinese shirts, Mexican shorts […] buy cars made in Japan, and then wonder where all the jobs went (P173:1). On the other hand, and in terms of internal chains of equivalence, the US administration is criticized: For the last 4 years the president has labeled as ‘protectionists’ those of us in Congress working for a reform of our trade laws. He has told us to let the administration solve our trade difficulties […] I don’t want to pick on the Japanese. They are guilty of nothing more than being the most adept at exploiting the President’s trade program, which seems to have as its goal the deindustrialization of America. (P3:4, in 1985 under President Reagan)

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The critics see themselves as not being taken seriously: those of us who early recognized the danger […] were ignored or ridiculed. We were called protectionists, isolationists, and even ‘trade warmongers’ (P40:32). From their perspective, however, the different bills […] reflect legitimate frustration with the trade deficit and with the Reagan administration’s apparent indifference to the problem (P50:47). In 1989 the argument is that our leaders and economists have been telling us all along that we can always give up the high-labor, low technology industries to Japan. That will free us to pursue high-tech industries  – like computers and aviation (P71:56), whereas in 1995 it is maintained that there will be a massive vote of no-confidence in the political and cultural leadership elites in the West who have steered us into decline […] (P166:7). The internal criticisms are also directed against the principles and policies of ‘free trade’ and its advocates more broadly: they treat the notion of ‘free trade’ as an article of faith, despite the fact that there is no true free trade in the world today […] and leave […] the American people at a great disadvantage (P20:37), as they allege that in the United States nothing must stand in the way of free-market efficiency, very narrowly defined to exclude any and all social consequences (P104:4). In this context, US companies are also blamed for wrapping themselves in the American flag and asking the government to help them, while in the end they were either not doing enough to stay competitive (P132:14)—the US car industry was criticized in 1985, for example, for not having used the VERs to improve their quality and productivity (P46:29)—or moving their production to more profitable locations. Finally, the ‘emotional’ aspect of this ‘short end’ perspective is emphasized throughout the perspectivations (cf. also Packard 1987, 4), with outbursts directed against both Japan and US policies. While the following statements demonstrate a certain degree of reflection in terms of self-­ characterizing them as frustration or anger, others in the category of intensification simply express anger.12 According to some scholars, ‘no other country has generated as much anger and frustration among its trading partners for allegedly not opening its markets to the extent that other countries’ markets are open to Japanese goods’ (Cohen et al. 1996, 176). What is explicitly called ‘frustration’ (the terms ‘frustration’, ‘frustrated’ and ‘frustrate’ figure 67 times in the documents on Japan) comes 12  On differentiating between ‘conscious and non-conscious’ emotions when it comes to the analysis, see Solomon (2015, 53).

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across in statements such as: this body voted 92 to 0 on a resolution expressing its frustration with our friendly neighbor, Japan, in regard to the trade imbalance (P4:5); accumulated frustrations from years of this kind of action has led to sharp congressional reaction this year (P8:3, in 1985); the bill […] is the result of years of frustration with Japan (P34:6); and momentum for Congress to do something on the trade problem has reached a fever pitch. We currently face over 300 bills […] they reflect legitimate frustration with the trade deficit (P50:47, in 1985). The perspective is articulated as reflecting the frustration with the ‘glacial pace’ of the trade talks (P68:9), the frustration of dealing with persistent trade imbalances (P71:104), and very high potential for this issue to become a lightning rod for broader frustrations in the United States-Japan relationship (P73:1, referring to the FSX-issue), as frustration and anger toward Japan is growing, endangering a special friendship with a good ally (P86:1; see also P91:6). Other statements explicitly articulate anger directed at both Japan and internally at the administration: I know that I will be accused of ‘Japan bashing’ but I can accept that. But, really, my anger is less directed at the Japanese […] than it is at our own Government (P10:9). The perspective of the broader population is characterized as reflecting the outrageous treatment by Japan of American goods and services (P25:46), so that there is a lot of anger out there in the hills and valleys and plains and plateaus and mountains of America (P73:70). Furthermore, some voices point to exasperation and tiredness, as in statements like: the citizens of this country are sick and tired of seeing the trade imbalance grow (P4:5), we are tired of playing on a field tilted heavily in their direction (P30:14), our patience has worn thin (P42:29), I am very disappointed by this lack of results (P96:3). It was argued that there was every reason to be disappointed (P102:2), many people have tired of the struggle […] it is no surprise that people are weary (P107:1), we are upset about Japan (P163:1), and the United States complains endlessly about the Japanese deficit (P163:3) without anything being done. More balanced views articulate emotional aspects as ‘explanations’ for the frustration: The Japanese appear to be underestimating the emotional wallop this issue carries in Congress (P14:30); what is important is that the Japanese fully appreciate the depth of feelings about our trade problems (P28:4); people are upset, rightly or wrongly […] we may be wrong about it but that’s the general feeling (P38:21). Others highlight the danger that in their view this poses to the relationship: […] an issue that has few rivals in terms of its potential to poison trade

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relations with the United States: whether to extend quotas on exports of automobiles (P14:30). In general terms it is acknowledged that trade threatens to become this Congress’ most divisive political issue (P21:11), the Japanese government […] worries about a severe reaction from us here in this country if their auto companies flood our market (P22:12). As for Japanese reactions, from the US perspective they are seen in different ways: Japanese cynics are hoping that the American outcry will go away soon so they can get back to real work. More thoughtful Japanese worry: ‘I am seriously concerned that there is too much emotion and impatience in Congress […]’ (P59:42). But equally the disputes are also seen as ‘dangerous’ in the sense of affecting, but also going beyond the trade relationship: the results of the deterioration in our international trade and investment balances have created a political crisis in Congress that threatens our good political relations with Japan (P61:24). While the sentiment for trade protectionism is growing rapidly in the United States (P67:28), more generally the mutual animosity/resentments in the relationship […] may be reaching dangerous levels (P79:5; P91:10). The situation is characterized as: there is a sense of mistrust of the Japanese on occasion, antipathy toward the Japanese (P93:5), at least ripples of anxiety about the Japanese (P93:7), people understand that this trade deficit with Japan is far beyond anything this Nation has ever experienced (P95:46). In this sense, the 1990 CRS report highlights that economic disputes with Japan sometimes arise from ‘accumulated frustration over trade negotiations [that] take the form of measures aimed at Japan or Japanese companies’ (Jackson 1990, 26). A 1992 CRS report speaks of ‘two decades of constant wrangling with Japan’ and of ‘the constant recriminations [having] taken their toll’ (Nanto 1992, 13). While a few scholars remark that ‘emotions’ played a role in the debates on US-Japanese (trade) issues, this happens only in passing (e.g. Packard) or in explaining it as a result of the extended time frame of difficult negotiations that did not lead to the desired outcomes (e.g. Uriu, Nanto and Schoppa). Uriu especially characterizes the framework talks as having come at a certain price—‘a degree of resentment, anger, and distrust of Japan, even among US traditionalists, that was not present before’ (Uriu 2009, 240). As a consequence, he points to what at the White House after 1996 was referred to as ‘Japan fatigue’: Simply put, the nastiness of the Framework, and Japan’s complete intransigence, made any attempt at negotiations painful, fruitless, and simply not

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worth it […] many officials now wanted to have as little to do with Japan as possible, in any realm. (ibid.)

From a PDT perspective, these kinds of articulations of an emotional perspective can be read as reflecting the consequences of the dislocation of US identity through the economic rise of Japan in terms of preventing the USA from living under what it claims to be ‘the normal course of (economic) development’. In other words, the emotional perspective can be explained by a profound experience of a ‘lack’ or ‘theft of enjoyment’. By enhancing PDT through the categories of enjoyment and fantasy—derived from Lacanian psychoanalysis—Glynos and Chang argue that feelings, or the expression of feelings of anger, can be understood as experience of a ‘theft of enjoyment’ in the sense of the Other being responsible for it, and the Other still enjoying at the expense of the Self (Chang and Glynos 2011, 111f.). As Žižek puts it: ‘we always impute to the ‘other’ an excessive enjoyment: he wants to steal our enjoyment (by ruining our way of life) and/or he has access to some secret, perverse enjoyment’ (cited in Solomon 2015, 47). From an understanding of the subject as (fundamentally) lacking and never being able to achieve the fullness it is seeking, it follows that it ‘continually experiences both frustration and dissatisfaction […]’, which are transformed into emotional expression through discourse (Solomon 2015, 53, 58). In this case it would be Japan ‘enjoying’ its economic success at the expense of the USA. In other words, Japan was gaining too rapidly at the expense of the USA as the latter’s relative—but relating to the ‘global leadership’ question also absolute—economic position was being compromised by Japan’s economic success (cf. Spar 1992, 283).

7.2   Perspectivation on China: ‘How to Deal with China’? The perspective on China up until 2008 is to some extent more ambiguous than the earlier one on Japan, especially when it comes to the question of what to do about the economic issues and their broader implications (cf. also Kolkmann 2005, 68). The main constant is the liberal theory of history—and American exceptionalism—perspective, as well as the internal opposition to it in different forms and with different nuances, reflecting the ‘self-made’ challenges to, or heterogeneity of, US identity. The

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USA has economic interests and stakes in trade with China, while it also articulates itself—by being a trading partner—as a facilitator of and guide to the economic and political liberalization of China. On the other hand, it also needs and wants to stay committed to its identity and ‘instinct’ as the promoter of human rights13: Linking trade and human rights was an instinctive American response to Chinese repression in 1989 (P149:4). Human rights are articulated as an integral part of US foreign and trade policy (P172:1), as it is repeatedly emphasized that the United States’ interests in maintaining engagement and dialogue with China are not limited to jobs and trade. We have a strong interest in seeing China treat its people according to international human rights standards (P125:64, 51). The economic perspective is mostly articulated as the USA having become dependent on China as a market place (P149:3; P167:47; P132:49; P167:47, 64) and, like with Japan, as being in a disadvantageous position mainly because of China’s unfairness (P176:30, 58; P186:3; P137:137; P198:4; P204:11; P205:4, 16; P208:4; P209:21), currency manipulation (P208:3; P212:4; P216:1; P217:3) and the trade deficit (P125:56, 72; P173:3; P132:45, 48; P133:71, 77; P136:19, P189:1, 10; P209:3, 22; P212:1), which—as with Japan—is portrayed as the root cause of the economically disadvantageous situation. China is regarded as being important for the export industry and especially the jobs market in the USA: in the economic front, American exports and American jobs are dependent upon sound relations with China (P188:2). It is maintained that if the next century is to be the Asian century […] American companies need to gain [a] foothold in [China’s] market early. Our competition is already poised if we retreat (P167:64). Being unfairly treated by, having a deficit with, as well as being indebted to Communist China (P175:13; P207:4) adds to the severity of the perspective. This is seen as having led to the deteriorating economic position of the United States (P133:78; P216:2). The single largest merchandise trade deficit in the history of the world is seen as a serious crisis (P173:3), as instead of buying from the USA, China could suggest moving US manufacturing to China (P132:49). The USA is also articulated as a victim of globalization more generally 13  Cf. also Kolkmann (2005, 70) and Gagliano (2014, 101f.). According to Gagliano, congressional legislative activity concerning human rights and China remained ‘relatively consistent’ and ‘unaffected by China’s increasing military and economic power or the expanding Sino-US trade relationship’ (2014, 114). However, ‘trade interests in Congress frequently outweighed other congressional interests, such as those in the human rights and proliferation issue areas’ (ibid., 141).

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(P189:12): America has lost her independence (P207:9), and is instead depending on China’s investment in US debt (P166:5; P207:7): they are holding a financial guillotine over the neck of our economy, and they will let it drop if we do things […] that are not well considered (P207:5). In 2005 the debate extended to the question of energy (in)dependence in connection with national security, in the context of a bid by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to buy the Union Oil Company of California (Unocal) (see P207). Unocal had already accepted a bid by Chevron, but this was $2 billion lower than the Chinese offer, and Chevron had subsequently increased its offer by $500 million. The result was regarded as uncertain, as the final decision depended on the shareholders. The House of Representatives passed a resolution urging the president to review the deal based on his powers according to the 1950 Defense Production Act, of which the Exon-Florio provision is an amendment (see Chap. 4), authorizing him to suspend or prohibit a foreign acquisition if it threatens or impairs national security. In the end, it did not come to a vote as CNOOC withdrew its bid following heated political discussions in the USA (cf. Gagliano 2014, 149). In the context of dependency and the ‘uneven’ relationship, concern was even raised over the extent to which the problems with China would become the same as those with Japan: Is China going to become another Japan, the capitalist but closed market [?] (P169:12). In 1994 the situation is described as: we are upset about Japan and have expressed ourselves with some effect. But we have heard very little about the trade deficit with China (P163:1, see also P164:1ff.), which is depicted as a worsening trade problem that is bleeding US economic strength by the buckets. That problem is our spiraling bilateral trade deficits with two big economic powers – Japan and China (P164:4). In 1997 it is argued that they have nontariff barriers that make the Japanese nontariff barriers look like the work of amateurs (P176:58). How to Deal with China: And Is It About Preventing Decline? The approach to taking action and in what form is to some extent less unified than it was in the case of Japan, as China’s rise still triggered many open questions about how to deal with it (cf. also Kolkmann 2005, 68; Paulsen 1999, 153), as expressed in: How should America deal with it [a potential Chinese threat]? (P123:3, in 1995); and: Where is China going? (P188:1, in 1997). The truth is none of us know what to do to get China to

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change. We do not want it to be another Soviet Union and we do not want a 40-year cold war with the largest country in the world (P126:6, in 1995). Could we live with a Singapore-style China? (P169:5, in 1995). In broader terms, the question is asked: What is the position and role of the western world? How is this important process linked to the western world in general and the US in particular? […] is this nation seen as relevant around the world these days? (P169:8, 9). What can we do as a nation? (P218:2, in 2008). These questions in turn are connected to that of a changing world and the US role in it: The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in Europe […] have created a new historical reality. Never before has the competition among the world’s leading powers been concentrated on economic, as opposed to military and ideological, realities (P155:2), which sounds more like describing the situation with Japan than with China, which is still predominantly articulated as ‘ideologically different’. For this reason, it is actually not the first, but the second time, albeit that the rise of Japan was happening during the Cold War. However, in 1994 it was argued that: it is clear that no one Western country, such as Germany, Japan or the US is capable of being the locomotive to generate sufficient economic growth. For the first time in modern history, the locomotive for the West must come from new growth in the rest of the world. Nonetheless, the US must take the lead to achieve its objective. (P155:26)

In this respect the task is described as challenging: I would argue that the task of bringing Western Europe back from the catastrophe of WWII was easier, politically and economically, than the task facing the FSU [the former Soviet Union] and, possibly, China today (P155:5). In this context, there are warnings against being outperformed by China: As before 2020, China may surpass America as the world’s largest economy. Superpower America has competition, after all. And we had better hustle, too, or the Chinese will eat our lunch (P143:3, in 2005). In addition, within a few years, China’s global role is seen as going beyond the economic sphere: Many believe the 21st century will be the century of the communist Chinese regime; that their economy will pass ours; that their rival model of governance will be adopted throughout the world of the corporate structure where one can make money (P218:2, in 2008). The perspective on the question of ‘how to deal with China’, as well as how the relationship between the USA and China will look, to a large

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extent, depends on whether it is seen through the prism of the accommodating or the confrontational features of US identity, in terms of American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history, and on what this means ultimately for the potential to change attributed to China. US Relations with China: The Role of the Liberal Theory of History When it comes to assessing the consequences for US relations with China, those aligned with the differential and accommodating features of the liberal theory of history argue that even though it will take some time, liberalization will come to China if the USA continues its policy of economic engagement (P146:12). Russia at the time was cited as a positive example of transforming into a democratic government with an open market economy […] we must now turn our attention to China with the intent of achieving the same results (P167:55).14 From this perspective, China should be granted MFN/PNTR status (P136:87; P137:63) and should become a member of the WTO: China entering the WTO […] [is] pushing China toward more liberal political, economic and social policies (P136:32). According to this line of thinking, economic and political freedoms share deep roots (P194:4), so this perspective stands for chains of difference aimed at weakening internal differences between the ‘values’ and ‘interests’ factions by articulating the liberal theory of history as providing common ground for both sides. In other words, in order to hegemonize the discourse, there is an attempt to incorporate opposing views by rearticulating them as in line with the ‘common good’. According to this view, the USA sees itself from the perspective of guiding China (P136:1; P199:13; P203:1) through engagement (P136:7; P123:2, P124:2; P188:3) and as a world leader in promoting free trade (P136:1). It is argued that since 1980 […] our engagement has helped to change China for the better (P136:7) and that in general—in line with American exceptionalism—pressure for democratization […] usually comes from the United States or from nowhere at all (P138:31).

 Both countries have been labelled major threats by the Trump administration.

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Self-Criticisms On the other hand, from the perspective of the critics of the liberal theory of history, free trade with China is part of the problem (P176:35). For instance, it is repeatedly called just a fig-leaf to enable US companies to move their production to China (P136:42; P200:3; P209:24). This again reflects the internal differences between ‘values’ and ‘interests’, here articulated as ‘business interests’ versus ‘basic values’ but also as the ‘business community’ versus ‘ordinary workers’. The USA is accused of being blindly devoted to free trade with nations like China (P189:10), and corporate America of doing business for profit with Red China (P189:16). Over the years, it is maintained that the administration and the business community have made granting PNTR to China their single-minded trade focus (P136:2; 162:11), while a majority of the American people oppose MFN for China (P191:1, i.e. 61 per cent in 1997). From this perspective, free trade is repeatedly articulated as having a negative impact on the jobs market, in terms of giving our kids jobs at Walmart, jobs at McDonald’s, while the General Motors jobs, the General Electric jobs are going to China (P209:4). In this view, the economists’ free trade policy (without reciprocity) has caused a hemorrhaging of American jobs, production, research, technology, investment and development to China and India (P215:6). More general self-criticisms directed not just at the liberal theory of history perspective yet again highlight the extent of the naivety when dealing with China: We need to take note of the words of these Chinese officials. We need to listen more carefully. Beautiful words do not mean promises kept. Sometimes when we in the United States hear ‘yes’ the Chinese are only saying ‘maybe’ (P136:40). Like in relation to Japan and the trade deficit, the USA is criticized for its ‘bad habits’: if the United States has one weakness going into the future, it is our savings rate, and that rate generally is about 1 percent […] people [in China] […] save almost 60 per cent of their income (P210:2). America can’t keep running on its China credit card to buy foreign manufactured goods (P219:2). In this sense, the question is asked: Number one, what is going on? […] our trade policy is almost by definition a disaster (P204:8). In terms of internal chains of equivalence against the administration, it is criticized not only for not taking care of the trade deficit (P132:45, 72; P198:4; P205:4, 16; P209:14, 33) or the currency question (P212:4), but also for having manoeuvred itself into the MFN dilemma: The administration is faced with a dilemma: Grant MFN and confirm that bullying the

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administration works, or deny MFN out of embarrassment and lose billions of dollars of US exports and tens of thousands of US jobs (P165:1; P180:7). As with Japan, there is an emotional perspective because of China’s alleged intransigence regarding both political and economic liberalization. However, the debates are not as heated as they are with Japan (apart from the intensified expressions, see Chap. 8): […] the trade problem we have with Japan, China, and other countries […] is a frightening picture in red (P164:3), we are all horribly frustrated that this country does not seem to be able to change, to give its people human rights (P126:6) and, once more as with the ‘personal’ perspectives voiced on Japan: perhaps I am a bit sensitive because, first and foremost […] I consider myself a free trader (P202:3); and already more intensified: Do you know how much debt China owns of ours? Is that not embarrassing enough? (P205:10). We should not have to kneel down in front of the Chinese, the Communist Chinese, […] or anyone else (P207:10). Sometimes the ‘emotional’ aspect, however, is also meant rather positively: China has always held a special intrigue for Westerners […] But this special fascination has not translated into a smooth and predictable relationship […] But, our fascination persists, perhaps because we have a sixth sense about – and emotional reaction to  – the huge sleeping giant on the other side of the world. (P114:1)

One possible explanation for the lower degree of vehemence expressed on China compared to Japan might be that ‘the lack of enjoyment’ caused by what was taken to be a close ally, and initially a country considered quite close to ‘the Self’, in the case of Japan is experienced as more severe. In this sense, the dislocating impact of failed expectations at that time was greater, because it was more unexpected, with Japan than it was with China. That said, dashed expectations of China have become more pronounced, at least since the Trump administration took over (see the conclusions).

CHAPTER 8

Intensification and Mitigation: Economic Warfare Versus Engagement

8.1   Intensification Towards Japan: ‘This Is Pearl Harbor Without Bombs’ With Japan, the main theme of the intensified articulations in all categories and throughout the entire time frame is that of an ‘economic war’ between Japan and the USA: we are in an economic battle to keep the world trading with each other (P71:105), let us move on the war and remain competitive […] we are in a vicious trade war that demands aggressive action […] (P33:21).1 It is argued that Japan is practising gunboat economics (P45:22) and the situation is described as a ticking time bomb […] this trade conflict is liable to explode (P20:4). America is articulated as being up in arms […] retaliation and possibly full-blown trade warfare lie just around the corner (P25:47). We are in a war. This is only the first shot […] we are going to load the gun and put some real bullets in it […] We are not just pointing (P27:10), this is just the first salvo in a long battle (P27:10).2 Accordingly, those who are negotiating with Japan are called ‘soldiers’: Today we will be hearing 1  Italics are used in Chaps. 5, 6, 7 and 8 for words and phrases taken directly from the source material. P = primary document; the number following, for example, P2, refers to the document number in the reference section; the number after the colon refers to the page number in the document. The list of all source material cited is included in the bibliography at the end of the book. 2  Japan waging an economic war was also a common trope of the revisionists and scholars such as Huntington (1993, 75), but also of popular culture (cf. Morris 2010, 28).

© The Author(s) 2020 N. Nymalm, From ‘Japan Problem’ to ‘China Threat’?, Global Political Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44951-3_8

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from the two members of the administration most immediately involved in negotiating with the Japanese on trade issues. As frontline soldiers in the battle […] (P44:6).3 In such intensified expressions, Japan is frequently referred to as the ‘old treacherous WWII enemy’ (see also Zeiler 2001, 223f.): I thought we defeated the Japanese some 30 or 40 years ago (P22:13). It is claimed that the Japanese philosophy and psychology is, they are still at war, except it is economic (P45:23). This implies that because Japan has not changed since the end of World War II, it will not change in the future. For the USA, ‘defeat’ would be shameful as: we ended up winning the war, losing hundreds of thousands of brave Americans, and then in the end losing it economically […] they [Japan and other countries] are now taking away from those Americans who fought and died for victory their economic ability to compete. (P50:9) There are brave and valiant bodies laying in Arlington today that are rolling over in their graves because they thought they won the war. They never thought they would see the government allow the Japanese businessmen to come over and take America from under them. (P71:5)

A characteristic way of drawing parallels between the economic situation and World War II is: ‘[…] this is Pearl Harbor without bombs’ (P92:30). Although the references to World War II and Pearl Harbor are not always explicitly stated, they are always implicitly present when speaking of war in relation to Japan. ‘War’ in this context stands for Pearl Harbor as the ultimate absence of fairness, or a metaphor for unfairness, as it alludes to the historical discourse of being unfairly attacked out of the blue by Japan. As a metaphor, Pearl Harbor is therefore an attempt to fill the empty signifier of ‘unfairness’, signifying the literal absence or lack of ‘fairness’.4 Maintaining the war rhetoric, most voices articulate the USA as being ‘on the defensive’ in an economic attack (P71:109), as having no other choice but to react and, again, as ‘getting  the short end’: They are  These kinds of war allegories were also popular in the media, which used cartoons but also historical pictures referring to World War II and Pearl Harbor (Dower 2001; cf. Morris 2010, 28; see also Wampler 2001, 254). 4  ‘Pearl Harbor’ as a term had acquired the ‘official’ meaning (in the form of a dictionary entry) of ‘any significant or crippling defeat, betrayal, loss, etc., that comes unexpectedly’ (Morris 2010, 28, 155). For (recurring) historical images of Japan as the ‘yellow peril’ see also Morris (2010, 14–23) and Dower (2001, 304f.). 3

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declaring a war on us, and we are hoisting the white flag (P28:3), hopefully the Japanese will heed our warnings […] to help prevent such a trade war (P28:4). When the other guy is shooting at you (taking your jobs) aren’t you allowed to shoot back? (P29:35). Again, the long time frame of the unchanging situation with Japan is highlighted: American industry and American workers have been at war for more than two decades (P40:23). For nearly 20 years, the US has been at war. A silent war. One fought not with weapons but with wares. The struggle is economic, not military. It is a trade war. And, we are losing it (P40:23; see also P42:30; P80:4; P105:63). The Japanese are articulated as having struck a damaging blow to the cause of fair and free trade (P42:37), and in consequence the USA has no choice but to react: this resolution is not a first strike by the United States in a trade war with Japan […] today’s action is the beginning of our retaliation (P42:41).5 We have a dynamic situation, a real red-hot trade war […] we are about 20 years late; definitely 10 years late […] That war is out there (P47:47). The USA is continuously articulated as ‘surrounded by enemies’: First Japan, then other nations, primarily in the western Pacific, attacked and penetrated American textile industry (P50:9). Japan is repeatedly accused of having launched an assault […] on industries in America (P88:2). The question is whether we, including both the executive branch and the Congress, along with American industry are all prepared to stick to our guns and take action (P122:1). Being on the short end vis-à-vis Japan is further expressed in intensified statements such as: We are now begging them for things. It has got to end. We must be the masters of our own fate (P22:13); we have been waiting while the Japanese bureaucrats […] eat us alive at the negotiating table (P25:46). On the recurring disputes on cars and car parts, it is argued that: The car business will go to hell […] You’ve got no options left…and we’re dead! (P29:34). The situation is described as a threat to US world leadership and standard of living (P39:48) or in more figurative terms as […] the land of the rising sun is beginning to cast a great shadow over America […] (P71:5). The US-Japanese relationship is described in terms of no longer being a partnership, but a boxing match in which we tie one hand behind our backs. We are faced with an economic attack, but we have responded by negotiating with Japan like greenhorns instead of as shrewd Yankee traders (P71:78).

5  Referring to the Export Promotion and Economic Growth Act of 1985, which was introduced in but not passed by the Senate.

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In the debates on the FSX aircraft (see Chap. 4), the security-­relationship with Japan is even put in question: why do we refer to Japan as an ally? What military or strategic services have they ever performed for us? (P73:121); American interests are being sold for peanuts […] it’s an elevator ride to the top for the Japanese, in our elevator (P73:125). It is also argued that Japan is taking advantage of the USA: But Japan knows it can count on Uncle Sam to keep the sea lanes open, to keep the oil flowing from the Persian Gulf – so why not take another free ride – which is exactly what they are doing (P71:100; P95:7). An extreme articulation in this vein is that of comparing Japanese business practices to a praying mantis, which is described as opportunistic, tackling anything that looks edible. The mantis fools its prey because it raises its front legs as if praying […] Once the mantis stops praying and starts eating, everything disappears from view. That’s what is happening on the FSX […] (P73:155). One of the major arguments with the FSX was that Japan was benefiting economically without having to pay a price, which in turn provided them with relative economic gains and led to corresponding losses for the USA (cf. Spar 1992, 284). Intensified Self-Criticisms: ‘Forget Pearl Harbor. The Enemy Is Us’ To a large extent, even the voices arguing against retaliatory measures on Japan, and also those being self-critical, used ‘war rhetoric’ and references to World War II as intensifications of their arguments and perspectives. On the one hand, US protectionist measures are articulated as dangerous, starting in the 1980s in articulations such as: The problem is that protectionism has once again reared its ugly head (P21:11), or more explicitly as in: protectionism could lead to WWIII (P38:32), [this] must remind us of the march of events which took Japan from being a peaceful trader in 1919 to taking the road to military conquest in 1931. American and European protectionism was a major cause of this tragedy (P38:33). Describing the situation in 1985, it is argued that the fate of the 300 protectionist bills in the US-Congress may hold the answer to the question which we failed to ask ourselves in the 1930s – ‘can protectionism lead to war’ (P38:32f.); and that some of us remember the 1930s, when the most destructive trade bill in history, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, helped plunge this nation and the world into a decade of depression and despair (P67:15f.). On the other hand, the intensifications directed against the USA itself in calling for action also use different intensified historical ‘examples’. For

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instance, the USA is articulated as becoming a colony again (P68:24; P92:30), with a new ‘mother country’ this time around. It’s not England, it’s Japan! (P29:33); England has gone down sadly, to a second-rate nation […] It is ‘small Britain’ and ‘great Japan’ (P47:50), or as in a statement like we know why the Indians roused themselves in rage and threw the British out. It is time that the United States recognizes that our interests demand no less (P18:43; P41:23). In this context, the inferiority of the USA is expressed as being the ‘definition of a colony’: Our three major exports to Japan are corn, soybeans and coal. Japan’s three major exports to us are cars, trucks, and video recorders (P68:24). The USA is also articulated as ‘giving away the game’: Why do we not try and buoy up the interest of Uncle Sam instead of trying to find ways of justifying how we can go about giving our country away? Why do we not start looking at America and taking care of our own business? Take care of America first (P71:5). Within these statements, allusions are again made to World War II: Forget Pearl Harbor. The enemy is us (P6:36; P83:11; P109:1); and If the United States is not to be deindustrialized, producing a situation comparable to […] the Morgenthau Plan […] US trade policy must be changed (P20:37). The war rhetoric and allegations are also maintained in statements intended to criticize internal disputes: Right now, a lot of you are fighting each other! The hell with ‘free trade’ and ‘fair trade’ […] Except nobody’s fighting for the country! (P29:35). Staying with the theme, the USA is seen as not well organized when it comes to dealing with trade issues: we have many ‘trade warriors’ in the US Government, but no general  – no department head  – in charge (P74:3, in contrast to the Japanese MITI).6 The intensified internal chains of equivalence are again articulated against an administration that is allegedly not acting tough enough towards Japan. The USA is even nominated as a bunch of suckers that is being offered rhetoric and platitudes by our Government (P48:26). What is inadequate, downright dumb, is us, the Government, right here (P105:20). In this respect it is argued that our trading partners are continuing to play us for the saps we have been in the trading arena (P50:18). US policies are described as favouring Japan: In our resolution it says that we are to blame; 6  There were also many book titles such as ‘Trade Warriors: USTR and the American Crusade for Free Trade’ (Dryden 1995) or ‘Trade Wars. Japan Versus the West’ (Oppenheim 1992).

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we have done it, please forgive us. If I were the Japanese Trade Minister, I would write a resolution the way we have written it and the way we are passing it tonight (P28:2).7 The USA is seen as naive: Should we be surprised, if the Japanese should say; ‘Look, our way enables us to beat you out’? Should we be surprised that we have the monstrous deficit? What cupidity to even act surprised (P41:24). It is also claimed that the anger is not directed against Japan itself, but against the administration: We are not anti-Japanese. I am trying to bash Washington. The Japanese did what I would do […] or what any competitive country arising from the ashes after World War II would do (P47:46), it is the Government in Washington which is not producing and not competing (P47:48). In this sense, ‘Washington’ is made responsible for what has developed is what you might call a trade war. And […] the enemy is not Japan. […] I am bashing Washington (P105:63). This is why, repeatedly over the entire time frame, there are calls for the president to take off the gloves (P25:46) and to announce that the time for table talk negotiations has ended. The president must tell our Japanese trading partner that this nation can no longer sit idly by […] (P27:12). President Reagan in particular is criticized for his handling of the issues, sometimes in a slightly ‘humorous’ way as in: the President is obviously looking at our economy through rose-colored glasses  – probably imported from Japan (P50:23). But the overall tone is harsher: It was this failed trade policy that vaulted Japan to a position of world industrial and financial leadership while making the United States the world’s greatest debtor Nation in a mere 8 years […] Reagan is in Japan to receive chrysanthemums while we are left with the faded flowers of our wilted economy and a trade deficit that threatens to destroy our position as leader of the free world. Congratulations are due to Mr Reagan for a job well done [;] the Japanese could not have done it better themselves. (P81:1)

In terms of building up further internal chains of equivalence, the State Department is addressed in the internal criticisms too: We are being taken for a ride, and it’s about time that our own State Department woke up. Whose side are you on, State Department, America’s or Japan’s? (P71:121). It is claimed that the United States has plenty of leverage to use in any 7  H. Con. Res.107, 1985, ‘Expressing Sense of Congress that the President Take Action Relating to Trade Deficit and Unfair International Trade Practices of Japan’.

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negotiation but we tippy toe, tippy toe, tippy toe when it comes to Japan (P73:53). In this respect diplomats are repeatedly portrayed as wimpy and spineless, when it comes to standing up for the best interests of the United States of America (P73:54); this coddling of the Japanese is not the attitude that made our Nation great (P73:123). Sometimes Congress itself is included in the criticisms as in: Congress has been a bunch of wimps (P130:1). Criticisms of Free Trade: ‘It’s Right up There with “Goodness” and “Mercy” and “Charity for All”’ The internal chains of equivalence against the administration, as in the case with China, again often go hand in hand with general criticisms of free trade: They [the administration] believe in the ‘invisible hand’ that will reach down and right all wrongs. Well, it’s become an iron fist, and it’s pounding us into the ground (P29:35). Free trade is articulated as a myth and a fairy tale, and ‘out of touch with reality’: neither do I believe in myths or fairy tales – and that is what the international practice of free trade is today, a fairy tale. We must get tough on trade (P40:23). Do not sit here and talk to us about principles of free trade when the world operates differently (P50:15). In some statements it is even described almost in terms of an empty signifier: Instead of a realistic trade policy in this country, all we’ve got is this lofty ideal called ‘free trade’. Who’s going to argue against it? It’s right up there with ‘goodness’ and ‘mercy’ and ‘charity for all’. I think it’s time to break out of our idealistic shell and look at the rest of the world […] Free trade is not one of the Ten Commandments. And ‘managed trade’ is not a sin. You don’t go blind or get warts from it. (P68:23)

These intensifications, in line with aiming to create insecurity through victimization, in combination with being further enhanced through the articulations of a prospective US decline (e.g. P105:21) if nothing is done to change the situation, are intended to finally spur and legitimize action against Japan: It is time we stood up and got tough with the Japanese […] we should retaliate […] we should stop telling our competitors how serious we are about free and fair trade and start showing them (P29:7, 9f.; P44:11). It is emphasized that Uncle Sam is tired of being the sucker (P73:65), if we are to survive as a great Nation, we must take a stand […] it’s about whether we have the courage to fight for American interests in the face of Japanese

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intransigence (P73:125). It is repeatedly maintained that unless we break out of our rut in trade, we may find ourselves in a vicious cycle of economic decline (P74:2). According to this line of intensified argumentation, the stakes could not be higher: we are at a critical juncture in our history. The decisions we as a people make today will decide whether, in the 21st century, America declines into a second rate power, or emerges as a leader of a freer, more prosperous world (P74:8). It is even argued that Japan in America will become a way of life (P88:4), as our debt grows, we are losing the capacity to control our own destiny (P89:3), and ‘we’re all going to wind up working for the Japanese’ (P100:5). In the context of the FSX question, it is argued that this debate is about our national future (P92:5) because if we are not careful, we will have a defense industry that will be based in Japan and maybe they will let us produce some of the things […] (P95:34). In connection with a debate on patent law, an intensified argumentation claims that if we change our laws to be like Japan’s, those economic shoguns, those economic gangsters that run that economy will be right here in the United States of America doing to our people what they do to their own people (P134:8). In this setting of calls for action, Japan (among others) is once more articulated as leaving no choice: Sadly we watch foreign government after government manipulate imports into our economy, robbing Americans from jobs (P29:5). I am not in favor of protectionist legislation, but I refuse to sit idly by and watch important industries […] be destroyed by a nation who plays by its own rules (P44:11). The USA is articulated as the sole fair player: You are not living in a fantasy world […] the real world is that the rest of the world is restricting our goods and demanding we leave our markets open (P50:15). As with China, it is also argued that the ‘Japan Problem’ extends beyond US-Japanese relations: […] other parts of the Japanese system pose a destructive threat not only to the US economy but to the entire world trading system (P68:10). In this vein, the arguments about Japan being ‘culturally different’ are also articulated in an intensified way, conveying the meaning that nothing with Japan will ever change, because a people (some have used the word clan) who have lived by themselves on a set of islands for nearly 2,000 years of recorded time do not buy readily from outsiders. There is no GATT, there is no law, there is no treaty, there is no negotiation that is going to change that (P31:37). This viewpoint alleges that there is an inbred predisposition among the Japanese to buy Japanese made goods […] Culturally the Japanese aren’t moved by the concept of fair trade and open markets when it comes to their own buying decisions […] I wish more Americans felt the same way

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about our own products (P38:21). In addition, historical allegations are made about the time prior to the ‘opening’ of Japan: in 1816 an American businessman tried to sell products in Japan, but failed […]. Unfortunately, things haven’t changed much (P42:29). Referring to the ensuing so-called open door policy, it is maintained that an open door trade policy does not mean trading with Japan through a crack in the door (P42:42). Furthermore, Japan in its ‘difference’ is once more articulated as lacking a consumer culture and practising consumer bashing (P88:3), while using the ‘uniqueness’ argument: The word they use is ‘unique’. Let us talk about uniqueness for a moment. This is the same argument the Japanese used to exclude our commercial products, uniqueness. The mud in Kansai Bay is unique, so American construction firms cannot help at Kansai airport. They are over here building ours. […] Japanese rice is unique, so they cannot import United States rice. Japanese stomachs are unique, so they cannot eat United States beef (P92:4). The list is endless and the arguments are all bunk. (P121:5)

However, there are also self-critical voices that aim to resolve the antagonism while also—in contrast to the mitigating self-criticisms in Sec. 8.2— maintaining an intensified tone. For instance, they point out that for America, protectionism would now be economic hari-kari [meaning hara-­ kiri], and deep down we know it. Looking beyond Congressional rhetoric, moreover, there is a dwindling constituency for closing our borders. The United States has become totally hooked on imports (P21:11). In 1994, the situation is described as: Today, the United States is the world’s largest debtor nation, and many critics insist that we have become a second-class power. Our decline in self-esteem puzzles both our allies and rivals. Many of us search for a scapegoat to blame for our manifold ills. But the bitter truth is that we have no one to blame for our condition but ourselves. For the wounds to our economic health and to our national pride have been largely self-inflicted. Our recent economic history is a story of blunder, mismanagement, stupidity, and irresponsibility by officials whose obligation to govern the nation was betrayed by their embrace of policies misconceived and ineptly applied. (P109:24)

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8.2   Mitigation Towards Japan: ‘Solve the America Problem’ The mitigating articulations emphasize the role of the USA’s own policies regarding the main ‘problem’ to be dealt with. When it comes to the trade deficit, the aim is to highlight other ‘problems’ rather than Japan, in order to break the chains of equivalence with chains of difference. This again exposes heterogeneity regarding the self-image of the USA as ‘good guys’ who are just following the rules of the free market and free trade. Already in the 1980s it was being argued that the problem was not only the high dollar, but also fiscal policy and even the consumers’ habits: But the real problem […] is our economic policy […] Our dollar is not overvalued; it is just highly inflated […] We are living on borrowed capital […] flailing a foreigner is not going to do anything to cure the basic problems of America […] let us not kid ourselves: If they open their markets wide open, it would not solve the American problem. (P28:1; P52:31)

Referring to the causes of the high dollar: These setbacks are caused by the strong dollar, demanding domestic fiscal action, not retaliation against those who merely profit from our own macroeconomic policies (P34:10). Accordingly, it is stressed that the USA must act in the domestic sphere: We have to […] get our house in order […] (P42:29), there is also a lot to be done right here at home (P42:39). More explicitly, global and domestic politics are linked: The country’s trade problems cannot really be solved until we understand the global impact of our domestic policies, put our economy on solid ground and live within our means (P52:30). In this respect, there are explicit arguments made against making Japan a scapegoat: We must also shoulder our own share of blame (P53:7). It is rather easy to make the Japanese a scapegoat, but it seems to me we have much more of a dollar problem than we have a yen problem (P55:34), the US had permanent trade deficits with Japan for the past 20 years, regardless of what was happening to the dollar/yen exchange rate during that time span (P55:138). In terms of market access to Japan it is argued that restricted access to the Japanese market is a problem, but it is not a major one […] most of our competitive problems are home-grown made in America (P65:7; P71:104). Referring to domestic ‘bad habits’, it is claimed that we need to lower our voices and pull up our socks. ‘Japan-bashing’ is no prescription for future

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success in industrial competition (P73:110), and as long as we consume more than we save, we will need to draw in goods from abroad (P106:1). Especially in the first half of the 1990s, in contrast to calls for the administration to finally get tough with Japan, the car negotiations are criticized from the mitigating perspective for their ‘confrontational’ (i.e. results-oriented) approach to Japan and accused of managing trade, which contradicts the US identity as a free trader: These countries are all going to the Japanese saying, ‘Don’t give in. Don’t accept managed trade’. […] they support Japan, which in this case ironically has the opportunity to portray itself as a free-trader standing firm against American efforts at managed trade (P106:4).8 The negotiations are described as a dangerous game of chicken with Japan. Tonight we will know whether we are going over the cliff or if one or both sides are going to blink in this dispute […] everyone knows that Japan-bashing is popular […] What happens if the other side retaliates? (P117:1). It is claimed that this administration wants our Government, our Government to manage the Japanese automakers (P120:5). Referring to the results-oriented approach and quantifiable, numerical targets: I understand that there is a constituency here in the United States that favors standing up to Japan […] you do not pick needless fights with your closest allies […] ‘the most important relationship we have is with Japan’. It has become a mantra, not a policy. Yet we see at the same time a policy that I would call trust but quantify. What does that sound like? Trust, but verify, the Reagan era cold war refrain […] Without United-States-Japan cooperation, we will not be successful […]. (P106:4)

By exposing heterogeneity, these statements highlight an identity conflict in the sense that retaliatory measures or a results-oriented approach contradict the principles of free trade that the USA otherwise claims to stand for. These voices thus undermine equivalential and homogeneous constructions of Self and Other by blurring the supposed boundaries. Self-Criticisms ‘War rhetoric’ is also employed as an ‘intensifier’ in mitigating articulations, as in, it is very important not to take steps […] in the heat of the battle 8  Here we can see a parallel with China’s call to stand up against the protectionist tendencies of the Trump administration.

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(P4:5). It is claimed that I do not want to get involved in a sense of economic nationalism here that says, We want to fire the first salvo in a trade war; the worst thing in the world that could happen to this country is any kind of trade war (P28:3). It is argued that the trade wars […] are damaging the political relationship. It does sound like war: the Finance Committee Chairman has said, ‘an eye for an eye’ (P31:37). There is, for example, criticism that the American auto-industry hailed Lee A. Iacocca of Chrysler as a national hero who had single-handedly driven out the villainous Japanese auto invaders (P46:29). In addition, self-critically: Protectionism puts a Democrat in a different posture. For once he or she sounds aggressive and nationalistic. […] we’re telling the Japanese to take their Toyotas and … let them rot on the docks in Yokohama (P47:45). America is wrong in today’s trade war, which is not to say Japan is right (P118:2). In some statements, however, the war rhetoric is even explicitly criticized: Listening to the US-trade representative these days evokes sounds of battle, of the adversary’s conning and one’s own self-righteousness (P118:1), as is the rhetoric towards Japan in more general terms: the rhetoric between the United States and Japan, which has been a substitute for any kind of effective action to deal with the real problem, has gotten inflammatory, overheated, and, oftentimes, nasty. I think that is demeaning to us and insulting to Japan. Japan should be viewed as a friend and ally of the United States. (P42:38)

In this respect, the criticisms are also directed explicitly at Congress: Members of this body […] engage in unrestricted castigation of Japan. There is a danger of going too far in our rhetoric (P42:44). Furthermore, it is critically pointed out that: Asian-Americans often become, also, a convenient scapegoat. Take Japan-­ bashing for example […] Americans are understandably feeling vulnerable […] But making Japan our scapegoat is not the answer. Inflammatory rhetoric helps no one. The Japan-bashing phenomenon becomes more and more disturbing with each politician’s slip of the tongue and each Honda-bashing party that the media covers. (P110:5, 33)

In addition, referring again to Asian-Americans: this singling out of one ethnic group has led to the unfair characterization that all Asian-Pacific American political contributors are ‘Asian foreigners buying up America’

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[…] (P190:8). In singular instances, the anger towards Japan is also explained by racism: There is a little of racist tinge occasionally to some of the remarks […] there is an understandable but not healthy response on the part of some: We were attacked at Pearl Harbor, we have to get some revenge (P95:46, not referring to the Senate, but referring to voices ‘out there’, in 1989).9 The voices that aim in turn to dissolve the chains of equivalence by articulating chains of difference argue, for example, that Japan of course, is not the only trading partner with which we have had difficulties […] [there are] Canada [and the] European Community […] (P27:9). We run trade deficits with Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, the European Community – virtually every country in the world (P42:44). It is also argued that contrary to the common view of the USA as a ‘victim’ or always getting the short end, the USA in the end profits from these partners and their policies: Japan and others that have a trade surplus with us don’t dump our money into some black hole. It gets reinvested, much of it in the United States thereby providing more jobs for us (P35:46; P120:4f., sometimes even with losses for the investors, cf. also Kataoka 1995, 7). In addition, there is an attempt to articulate historical allegations in a different, critical way: Just as Japanese trade practices have bred hostility toward Japan among some in this country, restrictive and retaliatory American trade measures will likely breed similar anti-American sentiment abroad […] anti-Japanese feeling today rivals that of the 1940’s […] (P50:47). Here, both Japan and the USA are criticized: [S]ince World War II, the Japanese have continued to think of themselves as a vulnerable, semi-developed and resource-poor country pushing intensely to keep up. […] Japan has nurtured a semi-dependent attitude towards the United States that sacrifices a great deal in the relationship in return for American tolerance of Japanese marketing successes […] America’s self-images are no less illusory […] we have been so impressed with our position and importance that we have neglected the hard work necessary to stay in that position. (P52:30)

In addition, referring to the ‘fairness’/‘unfairness’ debates in this context:

9  For racism in US policies towards Asia, see, for example, Buzas (2012). Cf. also Packard (1987, 2), Dower (2001) and Wampler (2001), who quotes Vogel on the dangers of focusing on Japan as the root cause of US economic problems: ‘For a yellow race to outcompete us is a wound to the Western psyche’ (ibid., 252).

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The term ‘unfair’ is widely used to describe Japanese practices. This is a point-­ less position, since it will shock not a single Japanese into politically translatable guilt and only raises the level of animosity. Americans would seem ‘fairer’ toward their perplexing ally if they jettisoned the conceits that after 1945 Japan was remade in the free-market American image and that it is guided by the US-inspired constitution. To prevent a serious further deterioration in the Japan-US relationship, a major shift in the way that Americans view Japan is a minimum requirement. (P79:7)

In this sense, balanced views also address the ‘free trade vs protectionism’ arguments: While the trade deficit soars, a somewhat sterile debate continues over ‘free trade vs. protectionism’ and the desirability of an ‘industrial policy’ vs. a non-­ interventionist federal attitude of laissez faire. This debate is unhelpful in the task of reinvigorating US trade efforts. The debate offers at one extreme the myth of a perfectly free trading system, a system which does not exist in the world today where government intervention and bilateral marketing arrangements are the rule. At the other extreme, it accepts the so-called ‘fallacy of the last move’– the naïve notion that if America erected more protectionist barriers against foreign products, we would not face mutually harmful retaliation from abroad. (68:14)

On these terms, the USA is encouraged to think about the broader picture: I urge my colleagues not to see this amendment as retribution for the Toshiba sale, for the potential involvement which we are not even sure of with Mitsubishi in the Libyan Desert and the chemical plant, or for the transgressions of the Japanese on past trade issues (P71:146), as it is emphasized that times have changed: Let me submit that post-Toshiba, the Japanese put in an export-control system that is superior to the Germans or the French (P73:61). The line of argumentation that articulates the USA as ‘inferior’ is also criticized: we all know that the Japanese have a history of unfair practices and protectionism […] implicit in this argument is that American workers cannot compete with their Japanese counterparts (P73:120), or, referring to the skills of US negotiators: these arguments […] reflect an image of Japanese negotiators as supermen and an equally unhealthy view that assumes America cannot hold its own at the negotiation table (P93:35).10

 On the image of Superhuman Japan, see Thorsten (2012).

10

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Finally, there are attempts to articulate the ‘Japan problem’ in relation to US domestic policies in a balanced way: much of our ‘Japan problem’ is really an ‘America problem’ that we ought to be capable of solving by ourselves (P77:8). However, it is maintained that Japan also bears some responsibility for the situation and US reactions: Nevertheless, there is an extremely important ‘Japan’ part of the ‘Japan problem’. In my assessment, forces within Japan today are not only not helping the situation, but worsening it and hastening the day when an American political backlash is finally triggered (P77:8). Japan is called on to ‘understand the situation’: I strongly believe that we do need to debate our economic and military relations with Japan. I believe that Japan needs to act to help offset the current trade deficit, and needs to understand – as do the other newly industrialized nations of Asia  – that the United States cannot indefinitely finance the economic growth of other States at the cost of a massive trade deficit and its own economy. (P83:8)

Additionally, ‘Americans’ are also encouraged to see the broader picture in more positive terms: I understand the concern of those Americans who fear the impact of the growing economic reach of Japan and other Pacific rim countries […] Many American observers interpret those figures as a danger to the American economy […] But to let our legitimate concerns blind us to the potential for clear benefits to the United States from her growing relationship with Japan would be shortsighted. (P97:1)

Against US Hypocrisy and Turning Japan from an Ally to an Enemy In the sense of aiming to resolve the antagonisms, the articulation of Japan as an ally is put forward in terms of a positive characteristic of the relationship, for instance, through pointing not to differences, but to similarities—standing against chains of equivalence, but for inclusiveness—between the USA and Japan: Do we doubt that […] the US-Japan alliance is still the linchpin of East Asian security? The two greatest industrial democracies in the world have shown the world the way to prosperity, stability, freedom and peace in the region (P71:57). It is emphasized that [this is] a debate about relations between friends, two countries which must nurture that friendship and insure that the friendship thrives (P71:71, 73; P84:3; P86:1f.; P91:6).

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It is repeatedly underlined that we are good friends with Japan. It is not Japanese bashing (P71:119). Though Japan may be an economic competitor […] Japan is also one of our strongest and most important political and military allies (P73:29). Hence, the similarities are first and foremost seen in ‘ideology’, as, for example, in: Japan has emerged as one of our most important allies. It is a stable democracy and a major economic power. The differences between us must be dealt with by debating and discussing the real issues involved, not by using a single major negotiation as a foil for asking Japan to accept terms we would never accept ourselves, and which we would never ask of any other ally. (P83:9)

In addition, the common view on the unbalanced character of the relationship in terms of economic and security issues is criticized: [Japan’s] progress with regard to burden sharing – both military and economic – has often been overlooked […] contrary to popular assumptions, there is a surprising level of mutuality to the United States-Japan relationship (P97:2), and it is emphasized that our relationship with Japan as a comparable economic power is new (P97:3). As if arguing against the deterministic view that a rising and an established power ‘must’ clash, it is maintained that our goal should be to share global power with a stronger Japan and Germany, instead of concluding that we must collide (P109:5), it is imperative that the United States start viewing Japan as an equal, rather than continue the little brother treatment (P113:3), as it is pointed out that adopting this view of the trading situation has generated unneeded frictions (P122:3), in terms of blaming Japan alone: I regret that there are many who are too quick to point a finger at Japan, to blame Japan for all our trade woes (P73:110). In this context, and contrary to the internal chains of equivalence, Congress itself is explicitly criticized: I am aware that most Members can hardly wait to cast an anti-Japan vote (P27:9). Instead there are calls to: [S]tart treating Japan as an equal nation. […] To listen to many of my colleagues in Congress […] you would think Japan is the same as Grenada.11 Japan is not Grenada. Japan is a major world power […] Can you imagine the reaction of Americans if a foreign nation wanted us to translate our telephone regulations – say Judge Green’s opinions – into Japanese at our expense? […] Can you imagine the reaction if the Diet passed a resolution 500 to zip  The USA orchestrated and led an invasion of Grenada in 1983.

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threatening the United States with trade retaliation? We’d go nuts. Yet that is what we are demanding of the Japanese […] ‘No American effort since the Occupation has dug into the guts of the Japanese system as we have done in the past year’ […] Let’s stop tearing apart the guts of an ally […] Let’s admit that the Japanese are lousy importers and we can’t make them buy from us. (P31:37)

The USA is also criticized as hypocritical when it comes to the practice of free trade: as free trade bastion, United States isn’t half as pure as many people think […] it is indeed hypocritical to preach what we don’t practice (P35:48; P37:19; P40:13; P63:19; P151:15), and more explicitly: it is an old trick to look at other countries and judge them by their actions while we judge ourselves by our motives (P55:138). It is even acknowledged that all too often in this debate the term ‘fair’ has been a code word for protectionism (P37:18), which again almost sounds like articulating free trade as an empty signifier. Furthermore, it is argued that we tend to forget that Americans buy Japanese products because they prefer them. We should devote more time to finding out why the Japanese consumer […] does not prefer American products (P42:44). There is criticism that the United States is proposing to undermine confidence in the revolutionary world economic system it did so much to create […] trade wars not only endanger the consumer […] but also tend to endanger us all (P49:15). The mitigating voices also explicitly criticize the allusions to World War II: World War II ended nearly 45 years ago. This is not a trade war issue (P73:118), or: It is so easy to paint with a broad brush and say because the Japanese were as they were in World War II […] that they will always be that way (P71:65). Accordingly, references to history with Japan are also made in another way: Let us also not forget history. One of the causes of World War II was the trade isolation that the rest of the world forced upon Japan. Are we not wise to learn the lessons of history and draw the Japanese to us, instead of spurning them again into supernationalism? (P71:77). The argument is even raised that Japan should not be turned into ‘just another enemy’: Ever since that time we have known which side we were on. We were against Imperial Japan, the Nazis, Communist China, and the Communist Soviet Union. But, Mr President, what if things really are changing? What if the threat from the Soviet Union is decreasing? Then we can no longer define ourselves by saying what we are not. We have to begin to say what we are, and I know there are a lot of people in the political process in this country who will find

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that very disquieting. They will be reaching for an enemy somewhere. I hope that they will not be looking at Japan. (P73:62, in 1989)

Balanced Views on Emotions in Congress The most thoughtful voices take an introspective view of the fervour of the debate on Japan, and articulate Congress itself as overly emotional by criticizing the potential for it to unreasonably trigger protectionist measures and a trade conflict: If we unleash protectionist actions based on emotional response, we will hurt ourselves and the world trading system (P27:10). I was frankly appalled that Congress could be so hasty, so shortsighted, and so irresponsible […] instead of facing its responsibilities and acting to correct the trade deficit, Congress chose to lash out at US allies, hanging the blame for our dilemma around their necks. (P30:10)

It is argued that this frustration is the wrong way to go […] we are not setting an example for the world. We are following the example of Japan (P50:14, 39). Again, references are made to the 1930s: Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal contains the best analysis […] of the dangers which lurk in the current mindless itch in Congress to start a worldwide trade war […] ‘Toying with Depression’ […] (P67:15). ‘Japan-bashing’ is explicitly criticized in the context of the FSX debates: If I allowed my frustration […] to dictate opposition to the agreement [the FSX] […] I would simply be engaging in the popular sport of ‘Japan bashing’ (P71:70). Quite figuratively the USA is criticized as overreacting: We ought not to behave like a bull in the ring, charging mindlessly every time we see the Japanese flag waved before us (P71:112). It [a vote against the FSX agreement] may give Members an opportunity to cast an anti-Japan vote, but it does not do anything because it only expresses the sense of Congress […] (P71:114). In turn, arguments are voiced for staying with ‘pure economics’: we certainly should, under no circumstances in this country  – we settled that 100 years ago – let prejudice enter into our thoughts in our public affairs, or even personal dealings, this is an economic matter (P93:11), and it is pointed out that the contentiousness and suspicion which has been brought in our economic and commercial relations has clearly infected our political and security relationship (P95:2). On the other hand, there are also attempts to understand the emotions:

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As far as Congress is concerned Japan accounts for virtually 100% of the worry and frustration prompted by the imbalance. The result is an increasingly angry and even ugly congressional mood that threatens not only to damage US-Japan relations but to bring considerable harm to American consumers as well. If the mood that these attitudes reflect is not entirely rational, least of all in urging punitive actions, neither is it entirely unprovoked. Japan has indeed stubbornly resisted the kind of liberalization of its import policies that could ease the trade imbalance. That resistance, though, hardly makes what Congress is threatening to do any more sensible or any more beneficial to Americans. Congress, upset about the overall size of the trade deficit but unsure of what to do about it, has become especially agitated by Japan’s posture in trade negotiations. But in its alarm Congress is cranking up to force measures that, while they would certainly harm Japan, would be unmistakably self-wounding to America. The deficit has swollen to its current size mainly because the dollar is so strong. That strength makes American goods more expensive abroad and foreign cheaper here. Bashing Japan is clearly not an effective or responsible way to address this larger issue. (P30:10)

It is generally conceded throughout the entire time frame that there is a lot of resentment in this Chamber about Japan (P71:103; P83:5): [M]any of the speeches today understandably have been filled with emotion […] I understand the sense of their frustration and their emotion [but] this is not the time to reorder the entire relationship with Japan […] that […] will be historically a very bad mistake and very shortsighted at a time when Senators want to vent their emotions […]. (P73:65f.)

Finally, however, even in these quite balanced statements, Japan’s alleged unfairness is often attributed not only to the government but to ‘the Japanese people’: Congress is reacting more out of anger and frustration than on the basis of economic logic. But the Japanese should understand that the true basis of this frustration is the sense that Japan as a government and as a people are being unfair in their support of policies that restrict American products from Japanese markets. (P48:23)

In addition, there are voices  more critical of Japan but still calling for negotiations: The Hill’s exploding animosity is understandable. The Japanese have indeed behaved selfishly, even arrogantly; their bland insouciance is insufferable […] Before we enact retaliatory laws, let us talk a little longer (P63:19).

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8.3   Intensification Towards China: ‘Evil Knows No Resting Place’ Towards China one of the major lines of intensifications is voiced by contrasting the ‘liberal’ USA with ‘communist’ China. Yet, this mostly happens in connection with criticizing the USA itself, by emphasizing ‘liberal’ values and juxtaposing them with ‘commercial interests’ and condemning the latter. This strengthens not only the external chains of equivalence towards China, but also the internal ones in the values versus interests debates, which aims to critique the liberal theory of history perspective. In this view, which seeks to expel any heterogeneity in both Self and Other, China is articulated as incapable of change, and thus ‘incompatible’ with US identity. The most intensified statements designate China as straightforwardly ‘evil’ to an extent that was not the case with Japan. However, it is always the ‘Chinese regime’ that is addressed, not ‘the Chinese people’, as when China is called a remorseless, ambitious, amoral, self-confident, even cocky, communist dictatorship that is bent on achieving regional dominance throughout the Far East […] a China which is not at peace with its own people will not be at peace with America (P126:11). China is articulated as untrustworthy and future change is ruled out, with the aim of suppressing heterogeneity: These things don’t change, and unfortunately, neither has the People’s Republic of China. Despite all their words, despite all their promises, their actions speak louder (P137:58). Statements like they are the enemy of every freedom-loving person in the world (P137:68) aim to extend the perspective from which the USA is articulating itself, as well as the actual ‘problem’, beyond US-Chinese relations. The Chinese government is called these butchers of Beijing (P162:2), and this rogue, vicious dictatorship [that] commits murder […] (P176:32). China is ascribed the desire to wage economic warfare against America (P181:1). The end of the Cold War is the ‘progress of liberty’ and contrasted with China’s ‘backwardness’: But evil knows no resting place. The cold war is over. And still how many have yet to taste the fruit of freedom? For there is a regime in the world today that runs against the tide of history; that denies liberty and human dignity to its people; a regime whose brutal repression at home betrays its intentions abroad; a regime that aspires to superpower status. I am speaking of Communist China. (P186:1)

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When it comes to China as an economic counterpart, the dragon stands knocking at our door […] do we permanently give it free access inside, when in the past it has broken its promises, stolen our technology, compromised our security? […] China has been promising economic concessions to buy its way into the WTO (P137:88). The parallels with the World War II allegories with respect to Japan are articulations of China being like, or even ‘worse’ than, the Nazis, which have come to stand as a ‘universal symbol of evil’ (cf. Hoenicke Moore 2015, 143) and as a metaphor for the ultimate absence of anything that has to do with ‘liberalism’ in connection with China12: This policy […] is eerily reminiscent of the Nazi eugenic program […] The Chinese Laogai […] are forced labor camps similar to the Nazi work camps of another era (P145:22f.; P201:4).13 There is no moral or practical difference between trading with the PRC dictatorship and trading with the Nazis (P125:13). In addition, this is voiced in an even more intensified way: Most of us have seen the movie, ‘Schindler’s List’. What is going on in China is similar: factories churn out goods made with slave labor (P125:91). We may be seeing in China the first true fascist society on the model of Nazi Germany (P206:1). Accordingly, the liberal theory of history and its allegedly ‘liberalizing’ effects are absent with China, and called into question in an intensified way: […] we do not treat bloody dictatorships in the same way that we treat democratic nations. Those people who are suggesting that we continue MFN-status […] tell us that something will happen by magic, all of a sudden we will reach a critical mass because there has been so much trade going on, and the prosperity has increased that the people then will demand freedom, and communism and dictatorship will crumble. That is absolute nonsense […] Nazi Germany did not have a great human rights program simply because they were a prosperous Western country. (P145:39)

12  For the omnipresence of ‘Nazis’ in foreign policy debates and in US culture, see Hoenicke Moore (2015). 13  The use of prison labour to manufacture export goods in China was frequently criticized as being an unfair trade practice—as US goods produced by paid workers were disadvantaged—as well as for human rights reasons. The prohibition of the import of prison-made goods goes back to the 1930 (Smoot-Hawley) Tariff Act. ‘Laogai’ (‘reform through labour’) in China could detain individuals for up to three years without trial or any court action. When approving PNTR for China in 2000, Congress also mandated a task force to annually report on the export of prison labour goods (cf. Gagliano 2014, 140, 145).

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Parallels are also drawn with pre-war Japan: […] as Japan and Germany bloodily illustrated in this century, nationalism plus economic might without human rights is not the road to democracy; it is the road to fascism (P162:9). We do not make a liberal by hugging a Nazi (P195:7). These kinds of intensified statements recall how Japan became an enemy of the USA, and how that would be the course of China in the future: Did this [becoming highly westernized] make Japan and Germany any less a threat to world peace? No. Today, China is, yes, advancing economically, but the money is being used by the militaristic elite to prepare for war and to attack the United States (P138:17). Referring to Japan in the 1920s: In many ways, we are repeating history. In the 1920s, Japanese militarists wiped out Japan’s fledgling democratic movement. […] In doing so, it set a course for Japan. Japan then was a racist power which believed it, too, had a right to dominate Asia. Japanese militarists also knew that only the United States of America stood in their way. This is deja vu all over again […]. The Communist Chinese, too, are militarists who seek to dominate Asia. They think they are racially superior to everyone. (P202:9)

Another frequent intensification in terms of China’s ‘evilness’—besides comparisons to Nazi Germany—is to liken China to the, illiberal and also communist, Soviet Union: [I]f during the Reagan years we had done with the former Soviet Union what we are doing with China, communism would still be alive and well because we would give Communist dictators in the former Soviet Union the money to stay in business (P138:9). As much as these statements aim to articulate a denunciation of communist China, they are also directed at the internal proponents of engagement through trade, as it is raised in the debates on MFN status: […] no MFN was given to the Soviets under Ronald Reagan (P176:33). Would these people have wanted to give MFN to the Soviet Union when they were […] doing all the bad things they were doing? […] Yet they want to give MFN to China when they are doing all these terrible things in the 1990’s, in the year 1997 (P180:2). We would never have given MFN to the Soviet Union […] In the 1980’s, Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union the evil empire. (P180:3)

Intensified Self-Criticisms: Violating Both ‘Values’ and ‘Interests’ These self-criticisms address the values versus interests debates when it comes to the question of how to preserve US identity as the promoter of

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human rights, as well as an economic power and role model. On the one hand, US ideals are contrasted with China’s ‘evilness’: It is time for us to apply our long-held ideals regarding human rights […] to our relationship with this Communist dictatorship whose deadly atheistic philosophy has no respect for human rights, indeed, no respect even for human life itself (P145:3). On the other hand, US business interests are criticized for betraying those ideals: […] many US corporations collude with a communist tyranny to exploit workforce […] our investments only serve to bolster a regime that is in direct contradiction to the founding principles of our Nation (P162:6). In this intensified view, it is even claimed that, instead of helping them, US business practices are hurting the Chinese people: We should not sell the Chinese people into slavery just to bring trading profits into our district (P125:54). In this respect, the USA is criticized for potential hypocrisy: We should not reward a totalitarian regime that is run by a Communist party, a dictatorship […] So let us not abandon our patriotic morals in favor of corporate profits (P137:56). It is also asked: Is the United States truly the leader of the Free World? Or are we merely the ‘moneybag democracy’ the Chinese rulers contemptuously call us? (P176:18). In relation to the question of MFN/ PNTR, it is argued that granting them to China contradicts both US values and interests: This whole idea of PNTR with China is against the interest of the people of the United States, against our moral position (P195:6f.). Furthermore, when it comes to business interests: This vote is whether we should be subsidizing big business to close down American factories and give that subsidy to them to open up factories in Communist China. It is an insult to the people of the United States (P200:6). In this line of intensified argumentation, the crackdown on Tiananmen square in 1989 is also raised: Our shortsighted policy of subsidized one-way trade crushes that goddess of liberty every bit as much as those Red Army tanks did 12 years ago (P202:11). Let us reexamine our souls. Let us reexamine our policies […] And when we recognize that and reach out with honesty and not for a quick buck, not just to make a quick buck and then get out […]. (P202:12)

even though and especially as China is also seen as a fantastic place to do business (P204:8). Hence, these articulations aim to suppress heterogeneity by antagonizing China, but they finally also reintroduce it by fostering the internal chains of equivalence against ‘pure’ business interests.

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Another example of this ‘duality’ is that, as with Japan, US trade policies are criticized for economic reasons while simultaneously attempting to attribute them to ‘communist’ China’s unfairness that the USA has failed to recognize: I have met the enemy, and he is us […] I do not blame them. It is us, the United States. It is because of stupid trade policy by the US Congress, this administration and past administrations […] are these our newfound friends? Are we to fear China or are we to stand up for the American worker? (P145:20)

As with Japan, it is argued that China is ‘enjoying’ at US expense: Pass the Bereuter bill and all Members will hear from the Communists will be laughs of doddering old rulers who will once again have put one over on Uncle Sam (P125:53).14 Similarly, as with Japan, a potential future World War III is brought up, although with China it is pictured as a consequence not of protectionism, but of ‘free trade policy’: […] the Congress of the United States, with American taxpayer dollars, is funding World War III […] The last I heard, we were referred to around the world as Uncle Sam […] the world is beginning to look at America as Uncle Sucker […] And what we have done in the last 3 years, we not only reinvented Communism, we are now starting to subsidize it. (P138:13)

As with the trade deficit with Japan, US overspending is scrutinized: A Nation that buys more than they sell will go bankrupt, and a Nation that allows illegal trade destroys all American industry (P139:1). On the other hand, the emphasis remains on China’s unfairness: How can we have normal trade relations with the most unfair trading nation on Earth? (P176:58). And this attribution to China as ‘the most unfair trading nation on Earth’—which was also frequently voiced in relation to Japan— is linked back to the establishment of diplomatic relations with China by President Nixon: Nixon, on his death bed, told writer William Safire that his China strategy may have created a Frankenstein monster […] Our policy of MFN status or NTR has created a monster (P137:38). As with Japan, these intensified arguments are supposed to stand as calls for action (cf. Hoenicke Moore 2015, 143) in terms of doing something about the trade situation, as in: when are we going to sober up and get a 14  The bill was aiming at an internal compromise in the debates on MFN in 1995, see Dumbaugh (1998, 27).

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competitive trade policy? (P136:19) […] it is time to put up or shut up (P146:4). However, they are also about the challenge to US identity: We must make a decision today and it should be on the right side of history. […] Are we prepared to sell our souls? Are we prepared to butcher our conscience? Are we prepared to deny our shared values of freedom, justice and democracy? (P176:67). Reminiscent of the arguments about Japan leaving no other choice than retaliation, it is claimed that: It is time for America to take a stand and say no. We have suffered too much (P207:7). It is upheld that otherwise, again like with Japan, the USA might be facing decline in a ‘real’ and in an ‘ideal’ sense: We cannot even purchase anything without the label ‘China’ on it. I was offended July 4 when I took out of my pocket an American flag, and on it it said ‘Made in China’. That is an outrage. We need to stop trading with these guys (P125:69). And referring to the ‘moral authority’ of the USA it is claimed: Today China’s economic power makes United States lectures about human rights imprudent. Within a decade, it will make them irrelevant. Within two decades, it will make them laughable. By then the Chinese may threaten to withhold MFN status from the United States unless we do more to improve living conditions in Detroit, Harlem, and South Central Los Angeles. (P160:4)

The USA itself is seen as contributing to this development: We are, in fact, empowering a super dragon that is powerful enough some day to eat our assets (P176:37), while it is claimed that: […] China is on record, according to the Pentagon, as referring to Uncle Sam as imperialist and, quote-unquote, ‘the enemy’ (P200:13). Hence, China is explicitly articulated as an external threat: A couple of things that I believe to be the most significant threats this Nation faces; one is an external threat, and that threat is the People’s Republic of China (P201:1). With regard to the argument that the USA is ‘contributing’ to its own decline, this is also linked to articulating the threat of the build-up of the Chinese military with ‘American trade dollars’: How many American jobs does this trade imbalance destroy, Mr Speaker? And how much military weaponry does it buy for the rogue dictatorship in China? (P145:2). This argument is also put forward in connection with the debates on MFN: By granting MFN, we are granting China a built-in trade surplus with which China is embarking on a massive and dangerous military buildup which could someday threaten the lives of United States soldiers (P145:2), as it is claimed that the Communist Chinese have used their $80 billion that they

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have in annual trade surplus with the United States to modernize their military […] They use that $80 billion to buy technology to kill Americans (P138:5). In consequence: We have essentially been arming and equipping our worst potential enemy and financing our own destruction (P202:3). Criticisms of Free Trade and the Liberal Theory of History as ‘Appeasement’ In line with the intensified criticisms of putting (commercial) interests first, those who argue for engagement in terms of the liberal theory of history are reminded of the policy of appeasement before World War II (P213:12), which is a strong internal intensification or part of the internal chains of equivalence. In order to establish a view of China as the ‘excluded Other’ in terms of the ultimate negation of US liberal identity, the proponents of engagement are aligned with the failed attempts to peacefully prevent the rise of Adolf Hitler in Europe: […] I am not suggesting that the People’s Republic of China is the 1994 version of the genocidal Nazi Germany. But […] [t]he world should not be silent in 1994 as it was in 1933 (P146:52).15 The exemplary argument related to appeasement is usually put in the following terms taken from statements in the period 2000–2001: I mentioned at the outset Winston Churchill, who took his stand against his country’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who had visited with Adolf Hitler in Munich, then returning to London proclaiming there would be ‘peace in our time’ and that Britain need not fear Nazi Germany. There was that one man who stood up and said no, Winston Churchill, who was to lead the free world into combat in one of the worst tyrannies history has ever known. We must not repeat the mistake of Britain’s Prime Minister seven decades ago. (P136:50) We are doing exactly what happened prior to World War II […] They gave more commerce to Germany, while Hitler built up his military […] We are doing the same thing with China (P137:71). Trade does not bring freedom […] Trade does not bring peace. Before World War II, the largest trading relationship in the world was Nazi Germany’s with England. Did that stop 15  In the context of US policies towards Japan, Huntington draws this kind of parallel by arguing that Japan was waging an economic cold war against the USA, and that ‘in the 1930s Chamberlain and Daladier did not take seriously what Hitler said in Mein Kampf. […] Americans would do well to take […] seriously both Japanese declarations of their goal of achieving dominance and the strategy they are pursuing to achieve that goal’ (Huntington 1993, 76). On the appeasement metaphor, see also Hoenicke Moore (2015, 142).

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totalitarianism’s rise? (P137:127). […] this reminds me of the time when Winston Churchill used to rise in the House of Commons to talk about the threat of Nazi Germany. They did not listen to Winston Churchill; and frankly, I do not think the country is listening today. (P138:20)

In addition to criticizing the faith in any pacifying, democratizing or liberalizing effects of trade, the alleged striving for profits is also condemned in terms of ‘profits for every sake’, which exposes heterogeneities in liberalism: There is money to be made by buying cheap in China and selling dear in the rest of the world. Well, let us test the theory of the modern day Chamberlains that rely on accommodating rather than confronting China (P201:2). Once again it is argued that we will be on the wrong side of the American people, and we will be on the wrong side of history, and we […] will have the same feelings that Chamberlain had when he returned from Nazi Germany and said, ‘We have peace in our times, go home and get a good sleep’, and then the bombs began (P195:20). While the red line of the intensifications towards China is also directed internally against the proponents of the liberal theory of history perspective, the main line of the mitigations endorses this view as ultimately preserving US identity, which is articulated as accommodating and inclusive, through an eventually changing China.

8.4   Mitigation Towards China: ‘China Is Not the Enemy’ The mitigations are first and foremost articulated from the perspective of the proponents of the liberal theory of history, and therefore call for engagement and emphasize the USA’s inclusive role and ‘mission’ in such engagement. They are based on the idea that China has the potential for change so long as it is ‘guided’ by the USA. In terms of aiming to resolve antagonisms, the mitigations are mostly also coupled with self-criticism, and thus equally expose heterogeneity within the chains of difference, call for fair treatment of China with reference to history and emphasize the importance of the Sino-US relationship. More generally, the voices that argue from the perspective of the liberal theory of history criticize the linkage between human rights and trade policy in terms of revoking MFN in order to improve human rights as counterproductive:

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Some Members in Congress have pointed accusing fingers at China, criticizing her for the lack of individual freedoms and democracy that we in the West take as God-given rights. Some have moved for economic punishment of China for alleged human rights shortfalls by withdrawing her most-favored-nation trading status. I join those Members of Congress that question the wisdom of a China policy linking trade with human rights. Restricting trade and access to the United States will not promote – but instead, undercut – efforts supporting democracy in China. It is of paramount importance that China’s awe-­ inspiring progress toward a free market economy be supported by the United States. (P113:3f., in 1994)

The necessary connection, or the inevitability that economic liberalization will lead to political liberalization, is frequently articulated throughout the entire time frame, in order to strengthen the ‘theory’ and argument, as well as America’s role as guide: [T]he best way to promote progress is to stay engaged, to encourage China’s economic reform and integration into the world economy (P114:8, in 1994). It is maintained that prosperity and expanded contact with American citizens is the best way to nurture the growth of democracy in China (P146:23, in 1994). Trade is linked to the promotion of US values in statements such as: [T]rade between our countries does more than enrich business […] they are exposed to our political ideas and our democratic values (P157:1, in 1994). In this context, China’s progress is also linked to the spread of US consumer culture: Twelve years ago, the images we saw from China were of students standing in front of tanks. Now the images we see on our TV screens are of students standing in front of Internet cafes and McDonalds (P200:7, in 2001). These lines of understanding aim to preserve US identity by articulating an image of (future) change in and of China, in line with the liberal theory of history and American exceptionalism, beyond the Sino-US relationship: Rather than continue to hold China hostage to threats of isolation, the United States should strive to form a closer relationship based upon mutual respect and mutual benefit. Forging stronger, comprehensive ties between the West and China is in the best interests of the world community. (P113:5; P145:4)

Accordingly, the USA would act as the facilitator of China’s transformation:

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We need to develop a long-term vision of what our relationship should be […] it has to be rooted in a goal of being a friend, of helping China transform itself into a full-fledged modern, free market economy […] the US has to stay engaged in China […] We should have an expanding commercial relationship. (P114:7)

In this sense, China and its future are at times also articulated as ‘dependent’ on the USA, in order to once more maintain or preserve US identity as guide and role model: A rising China need not threaten United States interests. In fact, China cannot achieve the economic growth, international respect, and regional stability it seeks without a workable relationship with the United States […] (P182:1). Furthermore, in this view the USA should face the situation and make the best of it: China is emerging as a great power. We could not halt that evolution if we wanted to. But we can and should try to shape the kind of power China will become (P188:1). Granting China MFN/PNTR is articulated as ‘business as usual’ according to this understanding: Granting China normal trading status—as we have done for 17 years—is a natural consequence of our policy of engagement. It is the routine way nations conduct trade (P188:3). This is an attempt to suppress heterogeneity by not talking about potentially contradictory commercial interests. In line with American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history, the global role of the USA in relation to its policies on China is emphasized: This is about America in the next century. As I believe the last century was about the United States and the Soviet Union and the military powers that existed then, the Cold War, this new century is about trade and about our relationship with China, leading the world toward human rights through openness and engagement. (P137:56)

Hence, the global importance of the US-Chinese relationship and the constructive potential of the US role in it are underlined: If we alienate China today, we will regret it for decades (P156:1); […] we can never turn China into a model of constitutional democracy if we isolate them economically (P194:3). As it is maintained that: The world’s most important relationship over the next 20 years will be between the United States, the world’s greatest military power and economic power, and China, the world’s oldest culture and largest population […] The forces of change and reform will win out sooner if the United States is engaged […]. (P195:14)

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Even the controversial case of Unocal is from this perspective seen as in line with the argument that economic interdependence will lead to peace: Some have raised concerns that the purchase of Unocal by a company tied to the Chinese government will create security problems for the United States. I would argue the opposite. International trade and economic activity tends to diminish, not increase tensions between countries. Increased economic relationships between the United States and China make military conflict much less likely, as it becomes in neither country’s interest to allow tensions to get out of hand. (P207:17)

Self-Criticisms From the accommodating perspective, several aspects of US policy are criticized, providing room for heterogeneity within Self and Other, with the aim of dissolving the chains of equivalence by emphasizing or articulating the chains of difference and an engaging approach to China: We need to encourage, cajole and coax the Chinese forward, instead of blustering, threatening and shouting at them in public. Above all, we need to treat our Chinese friends – as we would any friends – with dignity and fairness […] They fear the US will not be a constant and consistent partner and will not treat them with the dignity and fairness they feel they deserve. (P114:7)

When it comes to the issue of trade, for example, in the context of the MFN debate in 1994, it is argued that: [W]e are the only country in the world considering trade sanctions […] Could you imagine if another country sought to impose trade sanctions on us because of our nagging crime problem? At the very least, we would laugh at them (P145:36). There are also attempts at differentiation and to not see China as a ‘monolithic communist regime’: By threatening China overtly, we play into the hands of the hard-liners there […] No Chinese leader could survive for a day if they were to be viewed as kowtowing to United States pressure (P146:6). In this respect, MFN status is elevated to the status of the cornerstone of Sino-US relations, and those who want to withhold it from China are acting against the ‘national interest’: This administration and this Congress should stop playing games with MFN. It is time to stop toying with the linchpin of Sino-American relations and make decisions that advance the national interest of the American people as well as the humanitarian well-being of the Chinese people (P146:17). It is also maintained that during the debate on

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the MFN status of China, statements were made on the floor of the House which claimed that although China needs us, we don’t need them […] In this globally interdependent economy, it is highly likely we will need China in the future (P146:74). In addition, while not ‘bashing’ the liberal theory of history perspective and its proponents—as it happened from the intensified perspective— some voices try to articulate it in a more differential, contextual but also universal way, in terms of trying to accommodate the different positions on it: Of course, United States policy on MFN will not determine China’s future, despite continuing illusions of American omnipotence in some quarters […] (P147:1). We cannot let the extraordinarily important and complex Chinese-­ American relationship be dominated by a single factor […] [it] needs to be placed on the balance beam, not just our commercial interests, important as those are […] (P147:2). […] why [is it] that most Asians take China’s side in the matter of human rights. Perhaps it is in part because other nations resent American preaching […] the United States should not be moralizing about human rights in other nations […]. (P147:2) Revoking MFN-status will only be counterproductive to America’s long-term interests and push China back into a pre-Boxer rebellion resistance to Western interaction (P148:2). MFN only guarantees China the same low tariff rates that are enjoyed by nearly every nation in the world, including Iran and Iraq – not exactly the world’s best practitioners of human rights. (P148:2) […] let us understand that we can promote our values and ideals without destroying our interests or disrespecting a proud culture […] the Chinese-­ American relationship will be the most crucial bilateral relationship the United States will have in the 21st century. We should now construct a policy worthy of both nations. (P157:4)

In this sense, the intentions of those seeking to revoke MFN status in the absence of any improvement in China’s human rights record are articulated as well-meaning but ‘outdated’: […] the policy of linkage, although rooted in the best of intentions, is outdated and ill-suited to the promotion of the totality of our interests in China. It is […] principally a policy shaped by the image of tanks and protesters in Tiananmen Square […] It ignores […] our need to have a viable relationship with China in the post-cold war period, not a cold war relationship. (P149:5; P152:1)

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An ‘up-to-date’ policy from this perspective would consist of treating China as a partner: But treating China as an equal partner of the world will give us much greater moral authority to improve their domestic human rights than the current policy being proposed by many people throughout this country (P152:2). In the end, this line of reasoning comes back to promoting the economic relationship: If the United States wants political reform, it should promote Chinese economic reform. Economic growth does not necessarily nourish individual rights and the rule of law, but at least it creates the economic conditions in which progress toward political change might be possible. Reconsideration of the MFN issue to avoid injuring US exports to China oversimplifies these issues and also invites moralizers to argue that the issue is one of greed against morality. (P153:2)

Against US Hypocrisy and China Bashing At times, as with Japan, the USA is also generally criticized for being hypocritical in upholding an identity as a free trader and promoter of human rights: We want, today, to target China, because we want to have eight bills bashing China so we can achieve some political mileage out of it (P175:9, in 1997); or, on the other hand, It is just hard to see what our history of doing business with dictators in South America and around the world, including the former Soviet Union, […] how with China we find this new high moral standard in dealing with them (P176:45). In terms of US policy in East Asia, it is conceded that: [Taiwan and South Korea] were our allies, and we did not talk about MFN with [them]. But their human rights record was no better than China’s. We stuck with them because they were our allies in the cold war (P159:4), or that America cannot afford a trade policy that opens Vietnam and shuts down China (P165:1), rescinding MFN would deny China the trade status that we grant to virtually every other nation in the world (P125:83). It is also argued that the rest of the world does not agree with us on China. We cannot even force change in Cuba, a tiny country with an aging dictator and a population about the size of Michigan (P195:14). It is even reasoned that the main fear in China with regard to US attitude is that the US is looking for a boogie man or looking for an enemy, after Russia, to settle on China (P169:9). Other examples include, for instance, the debates on prohibiting the import of Chinese goods produced in prison labour camps:

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I love all this discussion about slave labor […]. I do not know of any State in the United States that does not have slave labor. All of us in our States produce goods that are sold in commerce that we Americans consume that were made by slave labor in our own prisons. It has been against the law so long as I can remember to import any of those kinds of goods in the United States. (P167:8)

In this sense it is argued: [T]his body and this Nation must also carry the same standards of human rights for other nations with which we deal […] As a nation we can demand no less of ourselves and with those who are members of the United Nations and with whom we conduct business (P172:2). Furthermore, these mitigating voices call for China’s development to be viewed in its time frame and historical context, and for US history and the development of individual liberties there not to be forgotten: So when people are upset over a 10- or 20- or a 30-year period of the failure of China to take a foreign concept, the inherent worth of the individual, and fundamentally restructure their society, I would say, take a look at our history (P137:51, referring to the introduction and the end of slavery, women’s voting rights and ‘one man, one vote’). In this sense, it is emphasized that […] in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. It does no good to evaluate progress toward freedom in China by comparing it with the United States or any other democracy. Instead, a historical perspective is needed (P179:2). In addition, just as it was argued in the case of Japan that ‘Japan is not Grenada’, it was now maintained that: China is not Cuba […]. It is senseless for the United States to treat the Asian colossus as anything else than a superpower likely to emerge later this century (P195:38). As for the role of the US government in economic policies such as currency and trade issues, its interference is also criticized as hypocritical as, like the earlier arguments about the Japan and the Plaza Accords of 1985: [T]here are often unforeseen consequences when we demand that foreign governments manipulate their currency to US ‘advantage’ (P142:35). In the debates on Unocal, criticisms are voiced that are reminiscent of the US administration being accused of ‘managing’ the Japanese car industry: Why is the federal government involving itself in the sale of a private American company? Do we really believe we have this kind of authority? I would remind my colleagues that Unocal is a private company with shareholders and a board of directors. That is the governance of the company – not the US Congress. Do we really believe that we should be the real board of governors of Unocal? If in the United States a private company does not have the right to be sold on the free

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market, should we really be criticizing the lack of freedom in China? […] I do not support subsidizing the Chinese government’s economic activities. But I also do not support the US Congress involving itself in the private economic transactions of US companies […]we should not criticize a lack of economic freedom in China when Congress, as evidenced in this legislation, attempts to restrict the economic freedom of American citizens. (P207:16f.)

In terms of China’s WTO membership, it is argued that China has had to shoulder a huge burden: Since China joined the WTO, do my colleagues know how many laws we had to change and pass in America to go there? Zero. Do my colleagues know how many laws China had to change, laws and regulations, to enter the WTO? 1100. To get into the WTO, to join countries of fair trade, China had to change 1100 laws (P209:23). In this context, US domestic policies are criticized: [T]he best that my friends in the majority can do is bash China a little bit and not do anything about our oil addiction, not do anything about diversifying our sources of energy, not do anything about the reckless fiscal policy that puts us at their mercy (P207:8). Balanced Views on Engagement and Containment The balanced voices criticize the confrontational approach, while again trying to articulate that the liberal theory of history accommodates both aspects of US identity: its commitment to values as well as to economic principles and goals. In line with this view, treating China in an antagonistic way is articulated as having the potential to become self-fulfilling prophecy: If we treat China as an enemy, it will react as an enemy (P167:49). Americans are vigorously advocating the ‘China threat theory’ (P168:1). In this context ‘Americans’ in general become the target of criticism: Americans have a tendency to tell China what to do instead of trying to understand what China needs and how it is to China’s interests to do some things. And it is time we learned that this will not be the most effective method of encouraging change in China (P170:3). Thus, arguments are made against an ‘either or’ policy and in favour of an inclusive policy: The choice is often framed, simplistically, as one between two mutually exclusive paths: containment or engagement. But the relationship between these two great nations is far more complicated than that (P182:1). As was the case earlier with Japan, now the ‘China-bashing’ is explicitly criticized:

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Our two countries, despite our differences, share many interests […] This is the most difficult bilateral relationship to understand and to manage, even in the best of times – and right now we are in the midst of another China-bashing season […] politicians and pundits have identified China as America’s next adversary. They have concluded that China will never play by the rules, and it is useless to try to integrate it into global political, security, and economic regimes. But is China a threat? […] China is simply not in our league. (P188:2)

The latter statement is in line with attempts to preserve the USA’s superior standing, but also with a critique of an exclusive and antagonistic view of a China ‘that will never play by the rules’, as: history is littered with the uninformed and ineffective responses of an established power towards a rising power, and vice versa (P193:3). Should the United States look upon China as an enemy and therefore seek to weaken or divide it, thereby creating a reality we seek to avoid? […] To move in this direction would become a self-­ fulfilling prophecy (P193:9). As with Japan, the balanced view criticizes the at times heated nature of the debates: It is not to turn a trade vote into a referendum on how we feel about China (P136:6). Similarly, it is argued that the picture is more complex: I think one of the things that really frustrates us is that we are accustomed to quick fixes. In our political culture, we expect to be able to fix problems overnight […]. Throughout its 4000  year history, China has resisted outside influences. As much as we would like to, we can’t change China overnight (P136:6). In this sense, it is conceded that Chinese society will never look just like American society (P136:11). Furthermore, as with Japan, there are calls to stick to ‘economic issues’: Many of these are good faith amendments. Many of these I agree with totally in principle. I voted against every single one of them […] Because, frankly, they don’t belong on this bill. This is a trade bill. Let us address the issues of human rights, workers, environmental concerns, and proliferation by China through a variety of other approaches. (P136:31)

The view is advanced that: [W]e should not let our frustration with the benefits of engagement lead us to undermine that policy by delaying or denying PNTR in a vain quest to change China overnight. PNTR is not a ‘reward’ as the opponents of PNTR suggest (P136:64, 97, 116). As with Japan, it is argued that most of this is tinted with ‘protect America’ as the argument. America does not really need protection. America needs the opening of markets around the world […] (P209:18).

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Like the voices that criticize the drawing of parallels with Japan in World War II, the chains of equivalence likening China to the Soviet Union are also explicitly criticized: China does not pose the threat to us that the Soviet Union did (P149:10), and the USA is called on to update its assessments of China at the end of the Cold War: […] the linkage of MFN and human rights […] embodies two aspects of what I call ‘old-think’, both of which should join the cold war on the dust heap of history […] The Soviet Union is gone, and Jackson-Vanik16 should have gone with it […] George Bush has left office, and the human rights-MFN linkage should have left with him. (P150:2, in 1994)

According to this line of reasoning, the past with the Soviet Union should not be invoked in the relationship with China: There are those in this country […] who are unconsciously pushing Sino-American relations into an adversarial position, reminiscent of the days of the Soviet Union (P170:4). More explicitly: The argument du jour is that China is our next Cold War adversary, and since the United States used trade sanctions against the Soviet Union in a successful Cold War campaign, the same strategy should be applied to China. This line of thinking is fundamentally flawed […] The Soviet Union earned the Ronald Reagan label, ‘evil empire’. Chinese foreign policy, even with its distressing proliferation policies, is in a different league altogether (P179:3, in 1997). China is not what the former Soviet Union was – an ideological and military expansionist threat to democracies around the world, that was also closed to external trade. (P190:2)17

In a sense, while ‘Smoot Hawley’ was the metaphor for the dangers of a confrontation with Japan, with China it was a new Cold War: The last thing we need is a new Cold War with China (P136:59; P204:8). I do not want to go back to the Cold War […] I do not think the United States should be the Big Brother of the world. I do not think we have all the answers in the world, as well (P138:20). It is also emphasized that for ‘technological’ reasons too, China is not the Soviet Union:

 Referring to the Jackson Vanik amendment of the 1974 Trade Act, see Chap. 4.  Since the Trump administration, the notion of a ‘new Cold War’ with China has gained traction once again. 16 17

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Those voices in the US now calling for America to ‘stick it to China’ and to ‘teach them a lesson’ sound as silly as the China People’s Daily hectoring America […] A cold war with Russia, a country that made tractors that were more valuable as scrap steel and TVs that blew up when you turned them on, was one thing. A cold war with one-fifth of humanity, with an economy growing at 10 percent a year, is another. (P203:2, in 2001)

Furthermore, as with the historical arguments about Japan, so too with China, there are voices that criticize the ‘use’ of history in these debates: Americans also need to use the right historical model. China is not bent on international conquest. Beijing may wish to dominate the region, but it does not wish to raise the Chinese flag over Jakarta or Tokyo. Rather, it is like Germany in the run-up to World War I, yearning for greater importance and testing to see what it can get away with. There could be a major war with China, but if so, it will be because of ignorance and miscalculation – in substantial part on the western rim of the Pacific (P123:4). […] a new cold war, this time with the PRC, is not entirely impossible – but it is avoidable […] we […] should not aim to isolate or demonize China or foster the attitude in this country that China is an enemy. They are not an enemy. (P125:5, in 1995)

Finally, some ‘far-sighted’ mitigating voices also draw parallels between the reactions to Japan and those to China: As with Japan, America must exhibit greater diplomatic sensitivity and learn to negotiate with China as equal (P113:4). In this context, the broader picture that US trade policy should not be isolated from global developments is emphasized: Currently, there is a sizable trade imbalance between our nations. To some extent that reflects unfair trade practices that we have to resolve, just as is the case with Japan and other nations. But to a very large extent this is more a reflection of shifting trends among East Asian exporters since our overall trade picture with the region has not dramatically changed. (P146:71, in 1994)

In this sense, arguments are brought forward against misinterpreting the trade deficit: Much has been heard about our bilateral trade deficit with China. It is the same argument that protectionists use as a reason not to trade with Japan […] In the 1980’s, Japan was the culprit. Today it is China […] (P176:60, in 1997). Once more referring to the Plaza Accords, it is stated that:

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[W]e should be careful what we demand of the Chinese Government. Take the demand that the Government ‘revalue’ its currency, for example ‘[…] the Japanese yen’s value has more than tripled since the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system, yet Japan’s trade surplus remains huge. Why should the unpegging of the Chinese yuan have a greater impact?’. (P142:34, in 2005)

In the context of the debates on Unocal it is pointed out that: I remember when Japanese investors moved to buy Rockefeller Center, at inflated prices, and many in this body wanted to stop that deal. We did not. And only a few years later the Japanese sold it back to the United States for pennies on the dollar. Bottom line, we made a killing. And Americans are better off for letting the market work. If we take this action, China could rightfully cancel American investments in China now totaling $25 billion. Wal-Mart, Conoco, Motorola, United Air Lines all bought companies in China and should be allowed to do so. (P207:10)

In both cases, it becomes clear through the mitigating expressions that ‘liberal identity’ can be articulated in both ways, providing for accommodation and antagonism, and it is precisely this that exposes heterogeneity. However, the crucial question arises as to how far accommodation in line with American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history is possible, as even the cooperative articulations imply a ‘measuring’ of the Other versus the Self, in terms of the potential for the Other to evolve and become more like the Self. It appears that the red line is reached when from the Self’s perspective, there is no longer any prospect for ‘positive’ change in the Other, meaning in this case Japan or China becoming more like the USA. At that stage, the inherent universalism would have proved not to be universal—or, in other words, in the tension between the exclusivity and universality of American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history, the exclusive features have come to dominate.

CHAPTER 9

Conclusions

The main aims and contributions of this book lie in bringing a missing historical perspective to US economic discourses on the ‘rise of China’ by looking at the parallels with an earlier discourse on the largely forgotten ‘rise of Japan’. The book also addresses the thus far equally neglected role of identity in studies especially on US-Chinese economic relations. Identity is conceived as identity/difference, relying on PDT in the sense that identity exists not in itself but only in and through articulations or practices in relation to ‘the Other’. This book, however, also addresses what is perceived as a tendency to focus on the ‘radical Other’ in poststructuralist IR scholarship in general, and the notion of antagonism when it comes to PDT and scholarship on Laclau’s work in IR in particular. Instead, this book has aimed to connect with scholarship that emphasizes that antagonism is not a necessary feature of identity, and to focus on the notion of heterogeneity, which always disturbs exclusive and binary articulations of identity and difference. Analysis of US congressional debates on the ‘rises’ of Japan and China reveals parallels that show that economic questions cannot be understood as rational assessments of resources and capabilities alone, as they are not exempt from the entailments of identity. Japan’s and China’s rise also pose a challenge to US identity in terms of American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history, which stand for a belief in the universality of US political values, with the necessary interrelatedness of economic and political liberty as a part of both, and for a universal path to the liberal capitalist © The Author(s) 2020 N. Nymalm, From ‘Japan Problem’ to ‘China Threat’?, Global Political Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44951-3_9

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political model with the USA as its ‘owner, operator and promoter’ (Ikenberry 2013). An identity discourse in US economic policy on China, according to which China is expected to change and ‘converge’ to become more like the USA, has long been a widely debated constant of US economic policy, but was also prominent with regard to Japan. ‘Disappointment’ about the outcome thus far is now clearly expressed in the Trump administration’s openly more confrontational approach to China, which goes beyond economic policy. At the time of writing, the USA and China have been locked in a ‘trade war’ for almost two years, albeit that in December 2019 it was reported that they had reached the first phase of a comprehensive new agreement, at least for the time being preventing further escalation in the form of additional tariffs (Swanson and Bradsher 2019). The trade war and the more hawkish approach to China by the Trump administration have been repeatedly characterized as unprecedented and disruptive, as has President Trump’s approach to many if not most international and domestic political issues in general. However, it has also been pointed out that the positions he is advocating have their precedents in US politics, for example, when it comes to domestic divisions over race and ethnicity: ‘…it’s a mistake to think that Trump started all this, even as he’s taking full advantage of the opportunities animosity has unleashed’ (Edsall 2019). Similarly, this book shows that the ‘new era’ in US–Chinese relations that scholars and policymakers keep announcing since the Trump administration was long in the making, as it rests on longstanding discourses on the USA’s main economic competitor, which for a second time happens to be a ‘rising’ East Asian power. While there are obviously important differences between the respective bilateral relationships and the historical context now and then, there are also striking similarities when it comes to how US identity is articulated vis-à-vis China now and was with Japan then, as well as the role it plays in and how it shapes economic discourses. Even though Trump is often said to question or even to have broken with American exceptionalism (Beinart 2017), his views on China expose continuities in that ‘the US should always be on the top’—and if that is not the case, it can only be explained by the fact that others are not playing fair. This is expressed first and foremost through the fixation on the trade deficit as an ‘indicator of decline’ and ‘proof’ of unfairness, as well as in the victimization of the USA by emphasizing that everyone else is ‘taking advantage’ and thriving at its expense. Here, Trump continues a longstanding aim in reacting to a dislocation—the gap between US superiority ‘by definition’,

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and Japan’s or China’s success that needs to be reconciled (cf. Miller 2018)—with a defensive hegemonic strategy that necessitates chains of equivalence, and thus an emphasis on the competitor’s unfairness and its ‘reliance’ on preceding presidents that have been ‘too soft’. The more Japan and China contradict American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history through what are seen as their deviant but successful forms of capitalism, the more they expose heterogeneity in both Self and Other by blurring existing categories and not clearly fitting in. Suppressing or expelling heterogeneity in turn comes with emphasizing differences and locating them on the ‘outside’, to maintain existing categories and identities on the ‘inside’. Both tendencies increased with Japan and China and are especially visible in the ‘new’ China discourse of the Trump presidency. In the case of Japan, the aim was to expel heterogeneity by emphasizing difference through ‘the inscription of Japan as rigid, hierarchical, and organized around groups […] [that] suggest[s] the “tribal” nature of Japan, and – as a consequence – its place outside of the “civilized” community of trading nations’ (Campbell 1994, 162). From this reading, it was Japan’s success in spite of being ‘uncivilized’ that accounted for the major challenge. ‘Japan bashing’ was about preserving the Self as universal in spite of the challenge (Morris 2010, 137). Furthermore, emphasizing ‘difference’, in 1987 Gilpin wrote of the ‘Japan problem’ that ‘Western liberal societies find Japanese economic success particularly threatening because it is the first non-Western and nonliberal society to outcompete them’ (Gilpin 1987, 391), while other scholars emphasized that ‘[Japan] was the first non-Western society to become an international economic superpower’ (Cohen et al. 1996, 176). Gilpin enlarged on his statement by continuing that: ‘Whereas Western economies are based on belief in the superior efficiency of the free market and individualism, the market and the individual in Japan are not relatively autonomous but are deeply embedded in a powerful nonliberal culture and social system’ (ibid.). Taken together with Friedberg’s statement, cited in the introduction, that China blurs the distinction between authoritarianism and market-driven economics, which makes China an ‘affront’ to Americans (Friedberg 2011, 43), this is another reminder ‘that history is not so close to an end’ (Chan 1999, 179, quoted in Pan 2004, 313). These assessments epitomize the main findings of this book. The major issue at stake when looking at articulations of US identity vis-à-vis Japan and China is not (only) what Campbell identified as the major political challenge in dealing with the subjectivity of the USA—that it is

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continually dependent on ‘strategies of otherness’ (cf. Campbell 1994, 166), which some scholars have attributed to an inherent ‘intolerance’ within liberalism. Despite having shown in the analysis that ‘liberalism’— in the form of American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history— theoretically accounts for both accommodating difference and turning it into ‘otherness’, the book comes to the conclusion that it is the paradoxical interplay and tension between universalism and exclusivity within these hegemonic discourses that presents a major political challenge for both the USA and beyond: Overcoming the dominant tendency to think and act exclusively in one’s own categories and concepts, which means rendering other contexts unthinkable (cf. Laclau 1988, 57; Marchart 1998, 14) without even remotely considering their contestability or ‘applicability’ on a larger scale (cf. Mahbubani 2008, 4; cf. Stäheli 2000b, 20, 22). The role attributed to the potential for change in the Other according to expectations of the Self pertains to the same universalistic tendencies that in the end seek to suppress heterogeneity in order to maintain existing identities and self-images. US identity as articulated through the liberal theory of history and American exceptionalism is ‘secured’ or sustained by Others who aspire to become like the Self. Potential resistance or refusal by the Other challenges the identity of the Self or self-understanding. The crucial point therefore is connected to the ‘limits’ of the chains of difference, or to the question of what happens if the Other does not seem to change to become more like the Self, which is not a predetermined but an entirely political process. The ‘end of expectations’ or of ‘hope for change’ was reached with Japan in the mid-1990s. At least, it did to the extent that the essentialized view of Japan put forward by the revisionists succeeded in filling the empty signifier in terms of achieving a hegemonic articulation when it came to defining the problem (Japan’s difference) and the solution (numerical targets). The common view on this timing is that the persistence of the trade deficit, as well as the end of the Cold War, made it possible to shift to a confrontational ‘results-oriented approach’, as economic interests no longer had to be ranked behind security questions (Nye 1992; cf. i.e. Schoppa 1997, 261). According to the analysis in this book, however, it was not only about the persistence of the trade deficit, but the way in which the trade deficit was articulated as a challenge to US identity that was not just economic, but to US identity as a ‘world power’, that is, not only in a ‘material’ but also in an ‘ideational’ sense. In 2008, there were still thought to be possibilities open with China, but this has begun to change. While during the Obama presidency the

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debates on how to deal with China continued in Congress and beyond between proponents and critics of engagement, overall the official line about the status of US-Chinese relations remained rather positive. Yet, by the end of his second term, both candidates in the 2016 presidential elections seemed to reflect an emerging trend among experts and policymakers that a new, harsher approach to China is needed. Obviously, the historical national and international context has also changed since 2008— not least China’s domestic and foreign policy under President Xi, which is unanimously characterized as backsliding from the path of ‘reform and opening’ to more control domestically and an increased assertiveness internationally. In 2009, Japan scholar Uriu wrote that for a replay of the US-Japanese tensions of the 1990s, three factors in US-Chinese economic relations would have to be in place: Chinese investment in the USA would have to increase; China would have to be perceived as a threat to US high-­ tech industries; and a unified ‘theory’, such as revisionism, would have to emerge (Uriu 2009, 244). As can be seen from the debates on proposals for a tighter policy on Chinese investment and what has been called the ‘tech-war’, of which the role of Huawei is the most prominent example, the first two conditions have been met. At the same time, offensive realism coupled with power-transition theory (PTT) seem to provide a more comprehensive framework on ‘revisionist rising powers’ in general, and the China case in particular, than the revisionist take on Japan ever did (cf. e.g. Chan et al. 2018).1 Make no mistake, as Zakaria aptly summarizes: China is a repressive regime that engages in thoroughly illiberal policies, from banning free speech to interning religious minorities. Over the last five years, it has intensified its political control and economic statism at home. Abroad, it has become a competitor and in some places a rival of the United States. But the essential strategic question for Americans today is, do these facts make China a vital threat, and to the extent that they do, how should that threat be addressed? (Zakaria 2019)

Many scholars are critical of the ‘new China threat’ and the ‘new Cold War’ or ‘clash of civilizations’ approach as both harmful and dangerous to 1  ‘Revisionist’ in IR usage refers to a state that is dissatisfied with its place in international affairs (cf. Turner and Nymalm 2019), which is different from how the term was used in connection to Japan. On developments in the US-Chinese economic relationship, see, for example, Morrison 2018.

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domestic and international politics (Gehrke 2019). During the trade disputes with Japan, large-scale concrete spillovers affecting the security relationship were largely prevented. In US-Chinese relations today, however, both the economic and the security realms are areas of friction, which makes the current overall tendency among US government agencies to securitize China even more dangerous. In 2020, China is not only playing in a different league militarily than Japan did previously, but the USA and China also lack the alliance and security ties that ensured that the kind of mistrust created by US-Japanese trade disputes in the past could be dealt with in the past (cf. e.g. Foot 2017). Additionally, with its trade war, the Trump administration is undermining what could potentially be conflict-­ constraining economic interdependencies (Nymalm 2019b). Opposing the ‘China scare’ discourse does not necessarily mean arguing for an end to confronting China on legitimate issues. However, as is acknowledged by a number of former officials in the Obama administration, it requires first and foremost letting go of the idea that through engagement or competition the USA will be able to change China according to its own image (cf. Campbell and Sullivan 2019), and that an unchanging China is necessarily ‘a vital threat’ ‘by the very visibility of its mode of being as other’ (cf. Connolly 2002, 66). In the light of the ‘failed expectations’ vis-à-vis China, the former officials advocate that a ‘starting point for a better approach is a new degree of humility about the United States’ ability to change China’, that seeks neither to isolate nor to weaken or to transform it (Campbell and Ratner 2018, 62, 70). In this view, the USA must learn to live or ‘coexist’ with China without knowing—or even trying to forecast—its future trajectory, while ‘accepting competition as a condition to be managed rather than a problem to be solved’ (Campbell and Sullivan 2019). If we interpret this as a call for the USA to learn to live with China’s difference without trying to squeeze it into the known binary of ‘friend/more like us’ or ‘enemy’, we return to the importance of the notion of heterogeneity as something that exceeds categorization as it exposes ambivalence in both, Self and Other. It is obviously not an easy task to implement this kind of thinking in foreign policymaking in general. The Trump administration’s antagonistic approach makes it quite apparent that it might not follow this path. Therefore it is even more important for scholars and practitioners to insist on alternative and productive ways of thinking and acting, based on the inevitability of having to deal with heterogeneity and ambivalence in ourselves, and in the actors and phenomena we encounter.

Bibliography

Sources from the Congressional Record Japan 1985 (The

sources for

1985 are

not freely accessible and

digitalized online, but the original bound record (in a scanned version) can be searched through the on site, or through

Library of Congress Proquest Congressional.)

database

Congressional Record Bound, May 15, 1985, Citation: CR-1985-0515 P 1: 1985 Replica of Original Proceedings – Pages 11945 to 11994 P 2: 1985 Replica of Original Proceedings – Pages 12195 to 12227 Congressional Record Bound, May 14, 1985, Citation: CR-1985-0514 P 3: 1985 Replica of Original Proceedings – Pages 11700 to 11749 Congressional Record Bound, April 18, 1985, Citation: CR-1985-0418 P 4: 1985 Replica of Original Proceedings – Pages 8340 to 8389 P 5: 1985 Replica of Original Proceedings – Pages 8490 to 8539 Congressional Record Bound, April 15, 1985, Citation: CR-1985-0415 P 6: 1985 Replica of Original Proceedings – Pages 7776 to 7825 Congressional Record Bound, April 16, 1985, Citation: CR-1985-0416 P 8: 1985 Replica of Original Proceedings – Pages 7873 to 7922 P10: 1985 Replica of Original Proceedings – Pages 8023 to 8072 Congressional Record Bound, December 20, 1985, Citation: CR-1985-1220

© The Author(s) 2020 N. Nymalm, From ‘Japan Problem’ to ‘China Threat’?, Global Political Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44951-3

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P87: IACOCCA INSTITUTE  – (BY LAURENCE W.  HECHT). Extension of Remarks  – July 25, 1989. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ query/z?r101:E25JY9-16:/. Accessed 20 June 2014. P88: THE LACK OF JAPANESE CONSUMER CULTURE.  House of Representatives  – July 17, 1989. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ query/z?r101:H17JY9-589:/. Accessed 20 June 2014. P89: MANUFACTURING A TRADE POLICY IN AN ERA OF CHANGE.  Senate  – July 11, 1989. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/ z?r101:S11JY9-997:/. Accessed 20 June 2014. P90: AN AGENDA FOR CHANGE IN COMPETITIVENESS POLICY  – HON. JOHN J. LAFALCE. Extension of Remarks – June 27, 1989. http:// thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r101:E27JN9-92:/. Accessed 21 June 2014. P91: U.S.  INTERESTS IN THE 1990’S--MANAGING THE GLOBAL ECONOMY- FINAL REPORT OF THE 75TH AMERICAN ASSEMBLY – HON. DOUG BEREUTER. Extension of Remarks – May 18, 1989. http:// thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r101:E18MY9-148:/. Accessed 21 June 2014. P92: DISAPPROVING THE EXPORT OF TECHNOLOGY TO CODEVELOP OR COPRODUCE THE FSX AIRCRAFT WITH JAPAN. Senate – May 16, 1989. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r101:S16MY9-55:/. Accessed 21 June 2014. P93: DISAPPROVING THE EXPORT OF TECHNOLOGY TO CODEVELOP OR COPRODUCE THE FSX AIRCRAFT WITH JAPAN. Senate – May 12, 1989. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r101:S12MY9-112:/. Accessed 21 June 2014. P95: DISAPPROVING THE EXPORT OF TECHNOLOGY TO CODEVELOP OR COPRODUCE THE FSX AIRCRAFT WITH JAPAN. Senate – May 11, 1989. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r101:S11MY9-106:/. Accessed 21 June 2014. P96: AMERICAN BUSINESS AND THE JAPANESE PATENT SYSTEM.  Senate  – April 13, 1989. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/ z?r101:S13AP9-1312:/. Accessed 21 June 2014. P97: AMERICA’S RELATIONSHIP WITH JAPAN. Senate – March 16, 1989. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r101:S16MR9-1451:/. Accessed 21 June 2014. P99: ANOTHER GIVEAWAY TO JAPAN.  House of Representatives  – March 14, 1989. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r101:H14MR9-21:/. Accessed 22 June 2014. P100: THE INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION – (BY HAYNES JOHNSON). Extension of Remarks – March 02, 1989. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r101:E02MR9-425:/. Accessed 22 June 2014.

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China 1997 P175: COMMUNIST CHINA SUBSIDY REDUCTION ACT OF 1997. House of Representatives  – November 06, 1997. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ query/z?r105:H06NO7-576:/. Accessed 26 May 2014. P176: DISAPPROVAL OF MOST-FAVORED-NATION TREATMENT FOR CHINA. House of Representatives – June 24, 1997. http://thomas.loc.gov/ cgi-bin/query/z?r105:H24JN7-154:/. Accessed 26 May 2014. P177: REMARKS ON THE RENEWAL OF CHINA’S MFN TRADE STATUS WITH THE UNITED STATES. House of Representatives – June 24, 1997. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r105:H24JN7-712:/. Accessed 26 May 2014.

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P178: MOST-FAVORED-NATION STATUS FOR CHINA. Senate – June 19, 1997. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r105:S19JN7-30:/. Accessed 27 May 2014. P179: MFN TRADE STATUS IS OUR BEST TOOL FOR IMPROVING HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA  – (BY DAVID DREIER.  Extension of Remarks  – May 23, 1997. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ query/z?r105:E23MY7-157:/. Accessed 27 May 2014. P180: IT IS IN AMERICA’S INTEREST TO REVOKE CHINA’S MOST-­ FAVORED-­NATION STATUS. House of Representatives – April 14, 1997. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r105:H14AP7-54:/. Accessed 27 May 2014. P181: CHINA – (BY HOLMAN W. JENKINS JR.). Extension of Remarks – October 30, 1997. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r105:E30OC7-40:/. Accessed 27 May 2014. P182: THE CHINA SUMMIT WHAT KIND OF ENGAGEMENT.  Senate  – September 17, 1997. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ query/z?r105:S17SE7-17:/. Accessed 27 May 2014. P183: TRADE WITH CHINA. Senate – July 28, 1997. http://thomas.loc.gov/ cgi-bin/query/z?r105:S28JY7-70:/. Accessed 27 May 2014. P184: WHY I SUPPORT NORMAL TRADE RELATIONS FOR CHINA  – HON. LEE H. HAMILTON. Extension of Remarks – July 08, 1997. http:// thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r105:E08JY7-142:/. Accessed 27 May 2014. P185: DISAPPROVAL OF MOST-FAVORED-NATION TREATMENT FOR CHINA – HON. GEORGE R. NETHERCUTT, JR. Extension of Remarks – June 27, 1997. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r105:E27JN7-420:/. Accessed 27 May 2014. P186: COMMUNIST CHINA AMERICA’S MOST FAVORED NATION.  Senate  – June 23, 1997. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/ z?r105:S23JN7-119:/. Accessed 27 May 2014. P187: MOST-FAVORED-NATION TRADE STATUS FOR CHINA.  Senate  – June 23, 1997. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r105:S23JN7-143:/. Accessed 3 June 2014. P188: UNITED STATES-CHINA RELATIONS THE CASE FOR ENGAGEMENT  – HON.  LEE H.  HAMILTON.  Extension of Remarks  – June 16, 1997. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r105:E16JN7-9:/. Accessed 3 June 2014. P189: MFN FOR CHINA AND NAFTA. House of Representatives – June 03, 1997. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r105:H03JN7-392:/. Accessed 3 June 2014. P190: UNITED STATES-CHINA RELATIONS IN THE PACIFIC CENTURY – HON. ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA. Extension of Remarks – May 23, 1997.

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http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r105:E23MY7-176:/. Accessed 3 June 2014. P191: AGAINST MFN FOR CHINA. House of Representatives – April 23, 1997. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r105:H23AP7-495:/. Accessed 3 June 2014. P192: COSCO A COMMUNIST CHINESE-OWNED COMPANY.  House of Representatives  – April 15, 1997. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/ z?r105:H15AP7-536:/. Accessed 6 June 2014. P193: RELATIONSHIP WITH CHINA.  Senate  – January 30, 1997. http:// thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r105:S30JA7-69:/. Accessed 6 June 2014.

China 2000 P194: TO AUTHORIZE EXTENSION OF NONDISCRIMINATORY TREATMENT TO THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA--MOTION TO PROCEED--Continued. Senate  – September 05, 2000. http://thomas. loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r106:S05SE0-0022:/. Accessed 12 June 2014. P195: AUTHORIZING EXTENSION OF NONDISCRIMINATORY TREATMENT (NORMAL TRADE RELATIONS TREATMENT) TO PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA.  House of Representatives  – May 23, 2000. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r106:H23MY0-0069:/. Accessed 12 June 2014. P196: NORMAL TRADE RELATIONS TREATMENT FOR THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA--MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT--PM 90. Senate  – March 08, 2000. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ query/z?r106:S08MR0-0063:/. Accessed 12 June 2014. P197: PERMANENT NORMAL TRADING RELATIONS WITH CHINA.  Senate  – March 06, 2000. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/ z?r106:S06MR0-0019:/. Accessed 12 June 2014. P198: THE TRADE DEFICIT. Senate – February 03, 2000. http://thomas.loc. gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r106:S03FE0-0046:/. Accessed 12 June 2014. P199: THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.  House of Representatives  – January 27, 2000. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r106:H27JA0-0060:/. Accessed 12 June 2014. P200: DISAPPROVAL OF NORMAL TRADE RELATIONS TREATMENT TO PRODUCTS OF PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA.  House of Representatives  – July 19, 2001. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ query/z?r107:H19JY1-0012:/. Accessed 12 June 2014. P201: THREAT OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA AND MASSIVE UNCONTROLLED IMMIGRATION. House of Representatives – June 14,

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China 2005 P205: PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 3283, UNITED STATES TRADE RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT ACT.  House of Representatives  – July 27, 2005. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ query/z?r109:H27JY5-0032:/. Accessed 12 June 2014. P206: CHINA A GROWING THREAT – HON. FRANK R. WOLF. Extensions of Remarks  – June 30, 2005. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ query/z?r109:E30JN5-0015:/. Accessed 12 June 2014. P207: EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE HOUSE THAT A CHINESE STATEOWNED ENERGY COMPANY COULD TAKE ACTION THAT WOULD THREATEN THE UNITED STATES.  House of Representatives  – June 30, 2005. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r109:H30JN5-0022:/. Accessed 12 June 2014. P208: HOW MUCH TO FEED A DRAGON. Extensions of Remarks – June 17, 2005. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r109:E17JN5-0087:/. Accessed 12 June 2014. P209: WITHDRAWING APPROVAL OF THE UNITED STATES FROM AGREEMENT ESTABLISHING THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION.  House of Representatives  – June 09, 2005. http:// thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r109:H09JN5-0019:/. Accessed 12 June 2014. P210: THE FUTURE OF THIS GREAT COUNTRY.  House of Representatives  – June 07, 2005. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/ z?r109:H07JN5-0050:/. Accessed 12 June 2014. P211: IN SUPPORT OF THE FAIR CURRENCY PRACTICES ACT OF 2005. Extensions of Remarks  – May 10, 2005. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ query/z?r109:E10MY5-0024:/. Accessed 12 June 2014.

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P212: EXCHANGE RATE OF CHINESE CURRENCY.  Senate  – April 12, 2005. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r109:S12AP5-0019:/. Accessed 12 June 2014. P213: CHINA’S SPREADING GLOBAL INFLUENCE.  Senate  – April 04, 2005. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r109:S04AP5-0011:/. Accessed 12 June 2014.

China 2008 P214: STIMULUS PACKAGE. Senate – January 30, 2008. http://thomas.loc.gov/ cgi-bin/query/z?r110:S30JA8-0016:/. Accessed 13 June 2014. P215: U.S.  TRADE AND MANUFACTURING POLICY.  Senate  – December 11, 2008. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r110:S11DE8-0038:/. Accessed 13 June 2014. P216: CALLING ON CHINA TO END HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES PRIOR TO THE OLYMPICS.  Extensions of Remarks  – August 01, 2008. http:// thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r110:E01AU8-0131:/. Accessed 13 June 2014. P217: STRATEGIC ECONOMIC DIALOG WITH CHINA. Senate – June 18, 2008. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r110:S18JN8-0025:/. Accessed 13 June 2014. P218: IN COMMEMORATION OF TIANANMEN SQUARE PROTEST. House of Representatives  – June 04, 2008. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/ z?r110:H04JN8-0059:/. Accessed 13 June 2014. P219: WRONG DIRECTION. House of Representatives – February 25, 2008. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r110:H25FE8-0026:/. Accessed 13 June 2014.

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Index1

A Accommodation, 67, 73, 102n9, 186 Administration, 3, 5, 8, 9, 17, 18, 19n19, 23, 31, 41, 43, 78, 83n3, 85, 86, 88n10, 89, 95, 98, 100–102, 101n8, 105, 107, 113n24, 115, 116, 117n28, 130, 132, 136, 138–140, 146n14, 147–149, 153–155, 159, 159n8, 172, 178, 181, 184n17, 188, 192 Agency, 35, 36n16, 55, 56, 58n23, 128, 192 Ally, 20, 32, 84, 92–94, 99, 102, 104, 108, 110, 111, 121, 136–137, 140, 148, 152, 157, 159, 160, 162–166, 180 Ambiguity, 15, 99, 104 American exceptionalism, 10, 14, 25, 36–43, 63, 66, 67, 73, 99, 111, 112, 124, 131–133, 142, 146, 176, 177, 186–190

Analysis of political rhetoric, 69 Anger, 139–142, 154, 167 Antagonism, 14, 15, 26, 58–60, 59n24, 62–67, 74, 99, 157, 163, 175, 186, 187 Antagonistic, 10, 11, 58, 59, 63, 70, 117, 182, 183, 192 ‘Anything goes,’ 55–62 Appeasement, 100n5, 116, 174–175 Argumentation, 69, 71–73, 77n48, 91, 92, 97–125, 156, 162, 171 Articulation, 9, 11, 14n11, 15, 25, 30, 32n13, 34, 36, 46, 56–58, 60–62, 64–67, 65n28, 72–74, 77, 91–96, 104, 111, 117n28, 118, 142, 149, 152, 155, 158, 159, 163, 169, 171, 186, 187, 189, 190 Asian financial crisis, 19, 25, 75 Asia Pacific, 20, 21, 109, 120 Authoritarian, 6, 8, 28

 Note: Page numbers followed by ‘n’ refer to notes.

1

© The Author(s) 2020 N. Nymalm, From ‘Japan Problem’ to ‘China Threat’?, Global Political Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44951-3

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INDEX

B Balanced view, 77, 140, 162, 166–167, 182–186 Boundaries, 14, 15, 33, 50, 54, 64, 69, 159 Bush, George H. W., 17, 85, 111, 115 Bush, George W. (President), 6, 17, 40, 41, 89, 89n11, 89, 101n8, 103n11, 107, 111, 115, 125, 184 Business, 4, 84, 84n5, 101, 108n18, 110, 114, 116, 117, 119, 124, 129, 129n7, 131, 136, 147, 151, 152, 170, 171, 176, 180, 181 C Capitalism, 6, 18, 30n9, 31, 39, 39n26, 67, 110n22, 117, 118, 121, 123, 132n9, 189 ‘Capitalist’ peace theory, 30 Change, 4, 11, 15, 18n15, 20, 25, 27, 31, 41, 43, 44, 66, 67, 73, 89, 91, 94, 100, 103, 103n11, 105, 108, 114, 119, 122–125, 132, 136, 145, 146, 148, 150, 155, 156, 168, 175–177, 180, 182, 183, 186, 188, 190, 192 China, 16–22, 27, 37–44, 81–91, 98, 112–125, 127–148, 155, 175–186 China bashing, 180–183 China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), 25, 75, 144 China’s rise, 6, 8, 28, 120, 144, 187 China threat, 7, 11n7, 12, 19–22, 28 Chinese currency, 86, 113n24, 115 Clinton, Bill, 17–20, 19n19, 31, 40, 85, 89, 103n11, 105, 111, 115, 115n27, 123, 125, 125n31

Closed, 7, 18, 30, 31, 33, 51, 52, 54, 82, 96, 98, 109n19, 112, 131, 136, 144, 184 Cold War, 20, 25, 39, 67n31, 68n34, 74, 75, 85, 85n8, 103, 111, 132n9, 145, 159, 168, 174n15, 177, 179, 180, 184, 185, 190 Commercial interests, 115–117, 122, 123, 125, 129n6, 168, 174, 177, 179 Communist, 40, 92, 94, 95, 118, 136, 145, 165, 168, 170–172, 178 Communist China, 20, 92–94, 110n20, 119, 123, 143, 165, 168, 170–172 Communist Party, 17, 40, 171 Competition, 3, 8, 10–12, 20, 32, 81, 81n1, 83n3, 92, 97, 102, 105, 111n23, 112, 119, 120n29, 128, 131, 143, 145, 159, 192 Competitor, 4, 24, 31, 108–109, 120n29, 130, 155, 189, 191 Conflict, 3, 19, 27, 27n2, 28, 40, 118, 124, 137, 149, 159, 166, 178 Confrontation, 3, 18, 58, 73, 88n10, 105–108, 184 Congressional, 9, 22–24, 26, 29, 77, 77n49, 81–90, 94n3, 115n27, 122, 140, 143n13, 167, 187 Congressional Record, 22–24, 26, 73, 75, 76 Congressional Research Service (CRS), 19n18, 23, 32n12, 77, 77n49, 101, 105n13, 109n19, 129, 134, 141 Constitutive, 9, 25, 42, 48, 54, 58, 58n23, 61, 64, 70 Construction, 8, 10, 13–15, 46, 47, 55n15, 56, 57, 61, 63, 65–67, 67n31, 73, 77, 157, 159 Constructivist, 13, 16n13, 28, 28n4, 34, 62

 INDEX 

Containment, 182–186 Contingency, 10, 46, 54, 56, 64 Cooperation, 17, 20, 27, 28, 159 Creditor, 21, 23, 25, 75, 95, 109, 111, 133, 135 Crises, 13, 54 Currency, 25, 75, 76, 78, 83, 112, 113, 143, 147, 181, 186 D Debtor, 25, 74, 95, 97, 111, 133, 134, 154, 157 Decline, 6, 17, 29, 33, 98, 104, 132–136, 139, 144–146, 155–157, 173 Deconstruct, 45, 46, 53n12 Defensive hegemonic strategy, 61, 100, 189 Deficit, 4, 9, 22n23, 33, 73, 74, 76, 78, 83n3, 84, 86, 90, 90n13, 97–125, 132, 134, 134n11, 139–141, 143, 144, 147, 154, 158, 161–163, 166, 167, 172, 185, 188, 190 Déjà-vu, 20, 170 Democracy, 8, 10, 33, 38, 40, 42, 67, 93n2, 94, 95, 116, 119, 123–125, 163, 164, 170, 176, 177, 181, 184 Dependent, 51, 52, 127, 133, 136, 143, 177, 190 Dichotomy, 12, 49, 50 Dictatorship, 92, 168, 169, 171, 173 Différance, 52, 54n14 Difference, 10, 11, 13, 15, 20, 21, 33, 41, 49n7, 51–54, 57, 59–67, 59n24, 71–74, 78, 92–96, 99–102, 104–108, 108n18, 115, 117–119, 125n31, 128, 131, 132n9, 137, 138, 146, 147, 157, 158, 161, 163, 164,

237

169, 175, 178, 183, 187–190, 192 Differential, 9, 48, 51, 53, 57–59, 61, 63, 65, 77, 120, 146, 179 Discourse, 4, 7–26, 11n5, 22n24, 28, 30, 32–36, 32n14, 38, 41, 45–62, 46n4, 64–71, 66n30, 81–91, 107n16, 115, 132, 134, 142, 146, 150, 187–190, 192 Discourse analysis, 15, 64, 65, 71, 73, 76n47 Discursive, 12, 14, 15, 32, 35, 47–52, 49n9, 55n15, 56–59, 62–65, 67, 77 Dislocation, 11, 13, 15, 26, 43, 58, 58n23, 60, 62–67, 73, 74, 91, 95, 97, 100, 108, 109, 112, 115, 118, 122, 131, 142, 188 Dualism, 49, 52 E Economic competitor, 4, 7, 11, 91, 121, 164, 188 Economic growth, 6, 12, 19, 27, 28, 32, 39, 120, 125, 145, 163, 177, 180 Economic war, 149, 149n2 Element, 37, 46, 46n4, 48, 51, 56, 57, 57n20, 60, 63, 71, 94 Emotional, 139, 140, 142, 148, 166 Emotions, 139n12, 141, 166–167 Empirical, 9, 13–15, 23, 25, 44, 47–56, 59, 65, 67, 68, 73 Empty signifiers, 60, 71, 72, 74, 99, 114, 136, 150, 155, 165, 190 The end of history, 10, 37, 40, 41 Enemy, 6, 13, 17, 42, 109, 115, 121, 136, 150–155, 163–166, 168, 170, 172–186, 192 Engagement, 3, 117–119, 143, 146, 149–186, 191, 192

238 

INDEX

Enjoyment, 142, 148 Enlightenment, 33, 37, 55 Essentialism, 46, 54 Essex School, 46, 47, 56 Excluded Other, 72, 174 Exclusion, 14, 50, 61, 67, 73 Exclusive, 12, 25, 59, 66, 67, 75, 99, 117, 182, 183, 186, 187 Exemplary, 37, 38, 76, 174 Exon-Florio provision, 85, 144 Expectations, 8, 15, 40, 42–44, 66, 96, 111, 119, 148, 190 Exports, 7, 21n23, 31, 81, 84, 106, 111n23, 116, 117, 123, 127, 137, 141, 143, 148, 153, 169n13, 180 External Other, 10, 59 F Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation, 85 Fairness, 99, 106, 114, 128, 136, 150, 161, 178 Floating signifiers, 57, 93, 94 Foreign economic policy, 8, 9, 11, 17, 29, 35, 36, 38 Foundationalism, 46, 55 Framework (for a New Economic Partnership) Talks, 85–86 Free and fair trade, 9, 96, 112, 155 Free trade, 10, 15, 17, 23, 23n26, 29, 33, 38, 39n24, 40, 41, 97, 102, 103, 103n10, 107, 112–119, 121, 123, 131, 135, 139, 146, 147, 151, 153, 155–159, 162, 165, 174–175 Free traders, 98, 101, 103, 135, 136, 148, 159, 180 Frustration, 43, 137, 139–142, 166, 167, 183 FSX fighter plane, 84 FSX-fighter aircraft, 75

G GATT, 16, 41, 89, 89n12, 156 Government, 18, 21, 23, 43, 83n3, 89n12, 92–94, 93n2, 98n2, 102, 103n10, 105, 109, 118, 119, 125, 128, 128n3, 133, 139, 141, 146, 150, 156, 162, 167, 168, 178, 181, 182, 192 Great power, 6, 12, 111, 177 H Hardline, 102 Hardliners, 98, 103, 109n19, 113n24 Hegemonic, 11, 13, 22n24, 23n26, 32, 39, 46, 46n4, 58–62, 65, 66, 71, 190 Hegemonic stability theory (HST), 27, 27n2 Hegemony, 14, 22n24, 46, 46n4, 62–67, 70, 132–136 Heterogeneity, 10, 14, 15, 26, 59, 62–67, 67n32, 74, 94, 96, 101, 104, 105, 107, 108, 115, 119, 131, 136, 142, 158, 159, 168, 171, 175, 177, 178, 186, 187, 189, 190, 192 High-tech, 20, 21, 139, 191 Homogeneity, 65 Homogenization, 65 Human rights, 5, 66n30, 86–90, 115, 115n27, 116, 119, 122–125, 143, 143n13, 148, 169–171, 169n13, 173, 175–177, 179–181, 183, 184 Hypocrisy, 163–166, 171, 180–182 I Idealism, 34, 49, 53 Ideas, 10, 12, 13n8, 18n15, 25, 29–31, 31n11, 34–36, 38,

 INDEX 

39n24, 42, 50, 52, 53, 67–71, 171, 175, 176, 192 Ideas/materiality dichotomy, 25 Ideational/material, 12, 34 Ideational turn, 34 Identification, 57, 58n22, 60, 61, 77 Identity, 4, 6, 8–11, 11n5, 13–15, 13n8, 14n11, 24–26, 29, 30, 32–34, 36, 37, 37n19, 41–44, 46, 51, 54–64, 66, 66n29, 67, 67n31, 70, 73, 77, 91, 92, 95–97, 99, 101, 108, 111, 112, 114, 121, 122, 131, 135, 136, 142, 143, 146, 159, 168, 170, 173–177, 180, 182, 187–190 Identity construction, 9, 13, 14, 66 Identity/difference, 13, 15, 25, 26, 32, 58, 67, 187 Ideological, 11, 12n7, 20, 21, 40, 42, 64, 85, 92, 95, 111n23, 117, 145, 184 Illiberal, 6, 17, 44, 94, 127–148, 170, 191 Imbalances, 28, 78, 83, 98, 140, 167, 173, 185 Imperial Japan, 165 Inclusion, 73 Inclusive, 66, 67, 67n31, 99, 175, 182 Inferiority, 127, 129, 130, 132, 133, 153 Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), 130 Intensification, 71–74, 92, 128n4, 139, 149–186 Interdependence, 28, 29, 178 Internal chains of equivalence, 59, 61, 74, 100, 101, 104, 107, 115, 116, 122, 138, 147, 153–155, 164, 171, 174 International Political Economy (IPE), 12, 13, 14n10, 15, 25, 29, 31, 34–36, 45, 45n2, 52, 107n17

239

International Relations (IR), 12–15, 13n8, 14n10, 25, 27, 29–31, 34–36, 39, 45, 45n2, 46, 50, 50n10, 52, 53n13, 55, 60, 61, 67, 111n23, 187, 191n1 Investment, 16, 20, 21, 33, 78, 81, 83, 83n4, 84, 96, 101, 103, 110n21, 123, 129–131, 130n8, 134, 141, 144, 147, 171, 186, 191 J Jackson-Vanick, 87 Japan, 30, 37–44, 63, 81–91, 97–112, 127–167, 187 ‘Japan bashing,’ 33, 92n1, 140, 158–160, 166, 189 ‘Japan fatigue,’ 19n19, 31, 141 Japan Inc., 93, 98, 98n2 ‘Japan Problem,’ 7, 12, 17, 19–22, 33, 103, 156, 163, 189 K Knowing, 50, 53, 192 L Lack, 13, 14, 16, 43n30, 44n32, 46n4, 54, 58, 58n23, 60, 64, 89, 99, 107, 112, 114, 129, 137, 138, 140, 142, 148, 150, 176, 182, 192 Language, 9, 24, 34–36, 45–48, 51–54, 57, 59, 68, 69 Language game, 48, 53 Leadership challenge, 76 Liberal, 5–8, 10, 14, 17, 18, 20, 28–30, 37, 39–44, 39n25, 43n30, 44n32, 85, 93n2, 94, 99, 118, 122, 124, 125, 132n9, 146, 168, 170, 174, 187, 189

240 

INDEX

Liberal democratic capitalism, 11, 110n22, 121 Liberalism, 10, 14, 25, 29, 30, 30n9, 32, 40–44, 43n29, 43n31, 44n33, 63, 67, 169, 175, 190 Liberalization, 6, 8, 10, 18, 23, 29, 38, 40, 42n28, 112, 124, 143, 146, 148, 167, 176 Liberal peace theory, 29 The liberal theory of history, 10, 14, 15, 17, 25, 29, 30, 36–43, 63, 66, 67, 73, 99, 103, 112, 115–119, 122–125, 142, 146, 147, 168, 169, 174–177, 179, 182, 186, 187, 189, 190 Libya, 137 Liminal, 67 Logic of difference, 59 Logic of equivalence, 59 Logics of Critical Explanation (LCE), 68 Logics of equivalence and difference, 59, 60, 64, 67, 71, 72 M Managing trade, 101, 159 Manipulating, 83 Market access, 20, 42, 101, 101n7, 158 Market economy, 8, 10, 18, 39, 112, 123, 146, 176, 177 Market-Oriented-Sector-Specific (MOSS) talks, 82, 101n7 Material factors, 8, 12, 21n22, 35 Meaning, 10, 12, 14n11, 21n22, 28, 32, 46–48, 50–54, 57, 58, 62, 63, 70, 71, 73, 77, 92, 150n4, 156, 157, 186 Mercantile/mercantilist, 4, 7, 98, 99, 104, 113, 134 Method, 9, 48, 68, 69, 134, 182

Methodological, 9, 25, 47, 67, 68 Missionary, 37, 38 Mitigation, 71–74, 149–186 Modernity, 40, 55 Moments, 3, 14, 56, 57, 61, 157 Most Favored Nation (MFN), 87–90, 86n9, 88n10, 89n11, 115, 116, 120, 123, 124, 146–148, 172n14 Most Favored Nation status (MFN), 25, 75, 86–90, 86n9, 89n11, 115, 115n27, 116, 121, 122, 146, 169–173, 175, 177–180, 184 N Naïveté, 138 Nazi Germany, 169, 170, 174, 175 Nazis, 165, 169, 169n12, 170 Nodal points, 57, 60, 72–74, 77, 91 Nomination, 71–73, 72n41, 77n48, 91–96, 113 Non-discursive, 35, 48, 49n9 Number one, 6, 12, 95, 99, 109, 130, 147 Numerical targets, 31, 86, 101, 108, 159, 190 O Obama, Barack (President), 41, 103n11, 130, 190, 192 Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, 85 Ontical, 48, 54, 58, 64, 68, 70 Ontological, 13, 14n9, 44, 48–56, 58, 63, 64, 68, 70 Open markets, 33, 104, 131, 146, 156 Order, 4, 6, 7, 10, 13, 18, 20–22, 31, 39n25, 40, 46–48, 50, 52, 53, 60, 61, 63, 71, 75, 83n3, 89, 90, 100–105, 107, 109n19, 111,

 INDEX 

114, 132, 136, 146, 158, 174–177, 190 Other, 9–11, 13, 15, 38, 41–44, 58–67, 65n28, 66n30, 67n31, 72, 73, 91–96, 108, 113, 131, 140, 142, 159, 168, 178, 180, 186, 187, 189, 190, 192 Othering, 25, 66, 94, 108n18 Otherness, 13, 15, 33, 63, 92–94, 190 P Paradox, 55, 63 Particularity, 38, 65 Pax Americana, 134 Pax Japonica, 134 Pearl Harbor, 149–157, 161 Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR), 23, 40, 86, 86n9, 90, 117, 120, 123, 124, 146, 147, 169n13, 171, 177, 183 Perspectivation, 71–74, 77n48, 92, 127–148 Plaza Accords, 25, 74, 82, 181, 185 Political, 3–6, 7n3, 8–11, 12n7, 13–15, 17, 19, 20, 22–24, 28–31, 33, 34n15, 38–43, 38n22, 39n26, 46n4, 47, 47n5, 54–56, 56n17, 61, 66, 67n33, 69, 70, 77, 77n49, 95, 96, 100n4, 103, 104, 109, 111, 112, 114, 119–123, 125, 135, 139, 141, 143, 144, 146, 148, 160, 163–166, 176, 180, 183, 187–191 Political discourse theory (PDT), 9, 12, 25, 26, 45–78, 142, 187 Politicolinguistic approach, 71 Positivist, 46, 47 Postmodernist, 35, 55

241

Poststructuralist, 9, 12, 13, 25, 34, 36n16, 45, 46, 46n4, 53, 53n13, 54, 56, 58, 62, 187 Power, 6–8, 7n2, 12, 27, 27n2, 28, 31, 32, 37n19, 41, 42, 46, 50, 56, 92–96, 105n14, 108–109, 114, 118–125, 129, 131–133, 132n9, 133n10, 136, 143n13, 144, 145, 156, 157, 164, 170, 171, 173, 177, 183, 188 Power shift, 6, 11n5, 27, 28 Power-transition theory (PTT), 27, 27n2, 28, 28n3, 191 Practice, 3, 4, 13, 26, 29–31, 33, 35, 36, 46–48, 47n5, 50–58, 53n13, 57n21, 60–62, 68, 71–73, 84, 84n5, 85n6, 90, 98, 100, 102, 103n10, 110, 111, 113, 115, 124, 128, 131, 135, 152, 155, 161, 162, 165, 169n13, 171, 185, 187 Predication, 71–73, 77n48, 91–96, 98, 113, 119, 120 President, 3–5, 5n1, 16–18, 20, 22, 23, 23n26, 31, 38, 40, 41, 75n43, 84, 85n6, 85n7, 87–89, 102, 103n11, 113, 115, 128, 132n9, 134, 136, 138, 144, 154, 165, 172, 188, 189, 191 Protectionist, 23, 29, 39n24, 86n9, 97–108, 135, 138, 139, 152, 156, 159n8, 162, 166, 185 R Racism, 161, 161n9 Radical other, 13–15, 60, 61, 187 Rationalist, 16, 28, 47 Reagan, Ronald, 4, 8, 23n26, 83n3, 85n7, 101n8, 132n9, 138, 139, 154, 159, 170, 184 Realist, 28, 32

242 

INDEX

Reality, 11–13, 33, 36, 46, 48–50, 70, 71, 116, 136, 145, 155, 183 Relational, 51–53, 57 Relationship, 4, 5n1, 7, 10, 11, 13, 16, 19–22, 21n22, 25, 51, 52, 56n17, 57, 62, 64, 75, 84, 84n5, 85n8, 91, 99, 100, 102, 104, 111, 112, 114, 115, 117, 119–121, 125, 131, 133, 136, 137, 140, 141, 143n13, 144, 145, 148, 151, 159–164, 166, 167, 171, 174–180, 182–184, 188, 191n1, 192 Results-oriented, 18, 20, 101, 101n7, 159, 190 Revisionism, 18, 20, 30–32, 105, 191 Revisionists, 17–19, 18n14, 30, 31, 32n14, 33, 85, 102, 108, 109, 128, 130, 133n10, 137, 149n2, 190, 191, 191n1 Rhetoric, 4, 7, 9, 20, 23, 68–70, 70n36, 153, 157, 160 Rhetorical analysis, 22, 26, 45–78 Rhetorical political analysis (RPA), 9, 12, 26, 67–71, 76 Rise of China, 8, 10, 23, 29, 187 Rise of Japan, 4, 7, 8, 11, 34, 40n27, 142, 145, 187 Rising powers, 4, 8, 121, 183, 191 Rival, 21, 42, 104, 109, 121, 140, 145, 157, 161, 191 Role model, 6, 10, 11, 22, 24, 73, 96, 99, 124, 133, 171, 177 Russia, 5, 40, 93, 112, 136, 146, 180, 185 S Scapegoat, 63, 100, 157, 158, 160 Self, 9–11, 13–15, 33, 41, 58, 59, 61–67, 65n28, 66n30, 67n31, 72, 73, 91–96, 131, 142, 148,

159, 168, 178, 186, 189, 190, 192 Self-criticisms, 100–105, 107, 115–117, 138–142, 147–148, 152–155, 157, 159–163, 170–175, 178–180 Sign, 51, 52, 129 Signified, 51, 52 Signifier, 51, 52, 60, 71, 72, 74, 93, 94, 99, 114, 136, 150, 155, 165, 190 Social, 36, 46–48, 50, 51, 53–59, 58n22, 61, 64, 67, 70, 71, 125, 139, 146, 189 The social, 46, 48, 50, 53, 54, 57, 59, 64, 67n33, 68, 70 Soviet Union, 5–7, 19n18, 39, 67n31, 68n34, 86–87, 111n23, 113, 117, 130, 132, 137, 145, 165, 170, 177, 180, 184 Strategic, 12n7, 21, 69, 133n10, 152, 191 Structural barriers, 103, 105 Structural Impediments Initiative (SII), 25, 74, 84, 85, 107 Structure, 34, 35, 36n16, 48–56, 58, 58n23, 98n2, 103n10, 105, 145 Subject positions, 57, 58n22 Super 301 legislation, 84 T Tariffs, 3, 17, 30, 78, 86n9, 89, 100n4, 103, 179, 188 Theft of enjoyment, 142 Threat, 5, 7, 7n2, 8, 11n7, 12, 13, 15–17, 20, 21, 31–33, 42, 60, 61, 67n31, 69, 107, 113, 121, 130, 132, 146n14, 151, 156, 165, 170, 173, 175, 176, 183, 184, 191 Tiananmen, 88, 171, 179

 INDEX 

Toshiba, 137, 162 Traces, 13, 31, 52, 54n14 Trade, 3, 28, 75, 81, 91, 97, 128, 149, 192 Trade deficit, 3, 4, 7, 21, 33, 73, 74, 76, 78, 84, 86, 90, 97–125, 132, 139–141, 143, 144, 147, 154, 158, 161–163, 166, 167, 172, 185, 188, 190 Trade imbalance, 16, 17, 28, 98, 140, 167, 173, 185 Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), 22, 103, 103n11 Trade war, 3, 17, 102, 149, 151, 153n6, 154, 160, 165, 166, 188, 192 Trading partner, 4, 8, 17, 84, 86n9, 87, 90n13, 93, 94, 100, 102, 120, 124, 130, 139, 143, 153, 154, 161 Transformation, 30, 42, 46, 57, 58n23, 66, 68n34, 69, 176 Trump, Donald J., 3, 5, 7–9, 16, 17, 19, 23, 23n26, 26, 41, 43, 78, 98, 102, 113, 113n24, 117n28, 130, 132, 146n14, 148, 159n8, 184n17, 188, 189, 192 Truth, 36, 47, 50, 52, 55, 63, 69, 144, 157 U Uncle Sam, 94–96, 152, 153, 155, 172, 173 Unfair, 3, 4, 10, 33, 41, 98–101, 103n10, 110, 112–114, 127–148, 160, 162, 167, 169n13, 172, 185 Unfairness, 77, 98, 98n3, 99, 104, 105, 112–119, 131, 143, 150, 161, 167, 172, 188, 189

243

Union Oil Company of California (Unocal), 25, 75, 119, 144, 178, 181, 186 Unique, 9, 30, 105n14, 107, 157 Universalist, 12, 63 Universality, 38, 186, 187 Us and them, 14 US-Chinese relations, 3, 9, 15, 16, 16n13, 27, 28, 28n4, 34, 168, 188, 191, 192 US Congress, 5, 16, 22, 24, 66, 74, 81–90, 152, 172, 181, 182 US dollar, 82, 87, 90 US identity, 6, 9–11, 24, 25, 33, 37, 73, 91, 95, 97, 99, 101, 108, 111, 112, 114, 121, 122, 131, 135, 136, 142, 146, 159, 168, 170, 173, 175–177, 182, 187–190 V Values, 5, 19, 36, 38, 40, 42, 43n31, 55, 82, 89, 115–117, 122–124, 134, 146, 147, 168, 170–174, 176, 179, 182, 186, 187 Victim, 8, 110, 127–148, 161 Voluntary Export Restrictions (VERs), 81, 81n1, 139 W War, 3, 19n18, 27n2, 38, 100n5, 103, 149–152, 149n2, 150n3, 154, 159, 160, 165, 166, 170, 179, 185, 188, 192 War rhetoric, 128n4, 150, 152, 153, 159, 160 The West, 6, 18, 33, 105n14, 106, 117, 118, 139, 145, 153n6, 176 Wilson, Woodrow (President), 38, 39n25

244 

INDEX

World Trade Organization (WTO), 5, 6, 16, 17, 23, 25, 40, 89, 89n12, 90, 114, 121, 123, 124, 125n31, 146, 169, 182

World War II, 20, 39, 41, 84, 96, 100n4, 110, 110n20, 121, 150, 150n3, 152–154, 161, 165, 169, 174, 184